page_title: Black and White (picture book)
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Black and White (picture book) / Plot
caption_attribution_description: A newspaper hat
context_page_description: Black and White is a 1990 postmodern picture book by David Macaulay. Published by Houghton Mifflin, it received mixed reviews upon its release but was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1991. The book tells four overlapping stories, each drawn with a distinct visual style. The four stories are "Seeing things", about a boy on a train trip by himself, "Problem parents", about siblings whose parents behave differently one night, "A Waiting Game", about people waiting for a train, and "Udder Chaos", about cows who escape and then return to their field.
  Macaulay had the idea of creating a book about journeys in the 1980s and combined several previously unrelated sketches in order to form the four stories in the book. Owing to its metafictional structure, the book is considered a main example of a postmodern picture book. The book is designed to be interpreted in a number of different ways and can be frustrating for readers who wish to have a simple narrative they can absorb without thinking too much about. The text and pictures of the book both complement each other and provide a sense of tension as they are sometimes in opposition to each other.
context_section_description: Each two-page spread of the book features one of four stories. In the upper left quadrant there is a story titled, "Seeing things". In this story a boy is on an overnight train trip to be reunited with his parents. At one point in the journey, the train's progress is stopped and he is briefly joined by what the text refers to as an "old woman" but which the illustrations suggest might be the robber from "Udder Chaos". Looking out the window, the boy is unable to tell what has stopped the train and laughs when the driver attempts to chase away what appear to be boulders. However, to the boy's amazement, the boulders begin to move off the tracks. Later the boy falls asleep only to be awoken by the train stopping and the sound of singing. Thinking he sees snow outside, the boy opens the windows but when he sticks out his hands to catch some, the boy realizes that it's actually torn up newspaper. The boy then notices "strange creatures" standing near the train who are responsible for the torn paper and singing. When the train resumes its journey, the boy falls back asleep only to be awoken at the train station where the boy is returns to his parents.
  In the lower left quadrant the story is titled, "Problem Parents". A brother and sister, with the sister serving as the narrator, know the routines of their parents who predictable in their actions, such as leaving for work each day  at 7 a.m. and returning home at 7 p.m. However, one night the children, and their dog, recognize that the parents are not their normal selves because they come home wearing newspaper costumes and singing She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain. The children's parents then find newspapers at home and, ignoring attempts at normal conversation topics, dress the children in newspaper also. The brother joins in the fun more quickly than his sister, who unsuccessfully attempts to jolt her parents back to normal. The narrator is horrified when her brother suggests they go out to dinner dressed as they are and manages to convince the other family members to leave the costumes at home. In the end, the narrator admits the experience is fun, though she finds her parent's antics "exhausting" when they ask her about her homework as she's heading to bed.
  The upper right quadrant's story is titled, "A Waiting Game", with the only text representing announcements from a loudspeaker. A number of passengers, all of whom are reading a newspaper, wait for their train at a station, which has been delayed. Eventually the passengers finish reading their newspapers and become bored waiting for the train. One passenger, to applause, makes a triangle hat out of her newspaper causing other passengers to join in. Soon they start making newspaper shirts, bunting, and confetti. When the train arrives they throw the torn newspaper into the air. After the train leaves with the passengers, the only characters left are a robber, and the station master who is cleaning up the mess from the newspapers.
  The fourth story, in the lower right, is titled "Udder Chaos". While the text describes what happens if Holstein cows escape their field, the pictures illustrate the movements of a robber, dressed in black and white stripes and a black mask. At first he hides among the cows, and then among a choir who the cows pass by, and then once again among the cows who stop the progress of a train. In the end the robber has disappeared and the cows return home so that they can be milked.
caption: A newspaper hat similar to that worn by several different characters in Black and White.
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