I thought I knew a lot about children by the time I had one. I mean, after all, I had a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education and I had actually taken Child Development and paid attention and I’d been teaching elementary school for over a decade and I was OLD too.
But I did not know one single thing about how baby vision develops and I most certainly didn’t know that babies don’t even have for certain good color vision until they are nearly 5 months old.
So there you are, waving about this brightly colored board book while the little person on your lap is just wildly unimpressed. Absolutely less than zero interest in the color palette. Does not marvel at the deep green and vibrant red that Clement Hurd has used to decorate the Goodnight Moon room (although alternating pages of that are actually grey and white).
Luckily there are some fantastic black and white books out there so you can offer a reading choice that will appeal from the very first and grow with littles one as they mature.
Black and White Sparklers by Smriti Prasadam and Emily Bolam
This pair of books feature black and white pictures enlivened by metallic sparkles. Each page reads “Hello, [insert name of animal]” and then two additional words, either sounds or actions of the animal. So the snail will slide and slide while the spider creeps and crawls. The very short text is great for when your little readers can’t or won’t sit for anything much longer. You can still squeeze one of these in, and quickly, if you are trying to make reading before nap or bed part of your routine.
Animals books by Xavier Deneux
My Animals features a single animal per page with one brightly colored accent. But the real treat is in the cleverly placed finger sized holes. These holes allow a glimpse of the page to come while working perfectly with the current page’s illustration. But really, the holes are ideal for exploring little fingers which will poke and eventually learn to turn those pages.
My Soft-and-Cuddly Animals again features a single animal per page, but this time, uses soft and fuzzy material to engage little readers. They can stroke a soft mole or pet a velvety bear as they enjoy Deneux’s illustrations.
Pick a Black and White Beauty! Trust me. Often the people who know and share that fact about babies not seeing color right away? They are the same kind of people who often pick the “educational” looking black and white books with the slightly creepy baby illustrations. Don’t you want the little one in your life to have one that is sweet and cute and fun to explore? Of course you do. This choice is practically a public service. You are saving children from bad books I tell you!
Share your favorite black and whites!!
If you have favorites, I’d love to hear about them, either here or on Twitter!
