Black and White

Black and White
Written and Illustrated by: David Macaulay
Copyright: 1990
Caldecott Award Winner


This book tells the story of a herd of Holstein cows crossing a railroad track and holding up a train and of the lives this delay impacted. However, it does so in four separate stories. The first story, "Seeing Thing," is about a boy riding on a train by himself that encounters an odd an unexpected delay, a mysterious old woman, and a train stop full of odd, singing people wearing newspapers, before finally reaching his destination and being greeted by his parents. The second story, "Problem Parents" is that of two children who are confused by their parents' behavior when their parents came home wearing newspapers and singing "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain." The third story, "A Waiting Game," tells of a crowd of adults all waiting for a train that is very late and eventually finding entertainment and joy in making costumes out of the newspapers they have already read in their wait. Finally, the fourth story, "Udder Chaos," is about a thief trying to steal a herd of cattle, only to realize that they're not quite as easy to steal as he thought and giving up on his nefarious idea when the cattle return home to be milked.


This book is challenging because of how the story is told and the fact the pages are divided into halves, but this challenge really makes the book. The title page contains a warning that offers a hint as to how to approach the book:

 Warning: This book appears to contain a number of stories taht do not necessarily occur at the same time. Then again, it may contain only one story. In any event, careful inspection of both words and pictures is recommended.

When the reader turns the page, they see that in fact, page one and two appear to showcase the covers of four different stories, with four equally divided squares. These four panels are then consistent throughout the rest of the book. Each story is told in its respective square. Individually each square can tell its own quite interesting story. But, when each story is read in sequential order (top left, bottom left, top right, bottom right) a portion of a larger story seems to be made clear. Of course, like the warning said, the stories may be completely separate from each other, at least of course, if only the text is referenced.


However, upon significant further reflection of both the stories and the pictures, it becomes apparent that really the book is telling one story, just from multiple perspectives. The pictures on one page for one story will often reflect what another story is talking about. For example, in "Seeing Things" the little boy sees what he describes as a cloud outside his window. Then, a few pages later, the train stop with the singing, newspaper clad adults is almost completely obscured by fog. Another example is that of the thief throughout the book. In "Udder Chaos" the thief seems to disappear after the cows block the path of the train. However, if one looks closely at the illustrations, it is discovered that the thief is, in fact, the old woman who mysteriously appears on the train, right about the time that the train has stopped for weirdly movable "boulders." Further, the mysterious "old woman" disappears in "Seeing Things," but then at the end of "A Waiting Game," the thief appears at the now deserted station.


The illustrations further develop the idea of interrelated stories by having certain aspects of a picture in one frame feed into a picture in another. For example, in "Problem Parents," the dad rips the mail into tiny pieces. In the frame above that, "Seeing Things" has described the boy's amazement at finding little pieces of newspaper floating through the air. The newspaper pieces fall from the top frame to the bottom where they become pieces of mail. Another example is found when a close-up of a cow in "Udder Chaos" fades into the dog's head in "Problem Parents."


Three of the four stories are illustrated in a cartoon manner, but the first story is illustrated by less defined watercolors. Not coincidentally, I think, the first story is also the most mysterious and the least clear. It tells of boulders moving due to shouting, of a vanishing old woman, and of snow made of newspapers. Each story after that is significantly clearer, even if some questions still remain. Therefore, the least clear illustrations are found in the least clear story. This is just another example that the illustrations really help define what is happening in this rather confusing story.


All in all, the story is backwards. Had the reader started from the bottom right story, every aspect of each individual story would make sense when it was read. However, the story progresses so that with each mini-story read, the mysteries found within each become clearer. This backward telling is made even more apparent by the fact that the copyright page and the dedication occur on the last page of the book, not the first where it is more traditional.


This book is not easy. It takes time and analysis to really understand what story it is trying to tell. However, it provides such a unique perspective of telling stories. Most often picture books are told from one perspective. Black and White takes one story and tells it from four different perspectives. The book is not to be read quickly or effortlessly, but I think it is worth the effort just to experience a completely different type of children's literature.


Personally, I just wonder as to how movies like Love Actually and Valentine's Day can be critically acclaimed for being so creative in their presentation of interrelated stories when a children's book author/illustrator did so more than ten years prior to both.


Related links:
So I just really want to make a newspaper hat now. Here's a great site for newspaper hat instruction.


Also if you are interested in finding out more about this author, this is not his only book by any means. He's a pretty interesting guy, actually. Check out David Macaulay's web site here. In the Articles and Speeches section of the site there is actually a transcript of his Caldecott acceptance speech for Black and White


http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-and-white-david-macaulay/1000310904?ean=9780618636877&itm=5&usri=black%2band%2bwhite#Details