Black & White
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Lap Listeners stage.
Why it fits Lap Listeners (for babies in their first year, when books are about your voice, not the plot)
A wordless accordion of crisp silhouettes to prop beside a baby during tummy time. Hoban's photographic eye gives babies real-world shapes, a quietly Montessori choice. It works before any other book can.
What makes it special
Hoban understood that for a newborn, a crisp silhouette of a bib or a butterfly IS the entertainment. The wordless accordion format stands up beside a baby during tummy time — a book that works without hands. It asks nothing of the exhausted parent and gives the baby exactly what developing vision craves.
About Tana Hoban
Tana Hoban (1917–2006) was a professional photographer who turned the camera into a teaching tool for the very young — her wordless concept books about shapes, colors, and looking itself are used in classrooms worldwide.
A successful commercial photographer in Philadelphia, she shifted to children's books in her fifties, convinced that real photographs — not drawings — best honored how seriously young children observe the world.
Also by this author: Black on White · Of Colors and Things · Shapes, Shapes, Shapes
More from “Touch, Pat, Peek”
This book is part of The Best Books for Babies: 30 Teacher Picks (Lap Listeners) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.