White on Black: A High Contrast Book For Newborns

One of my favorite gifts to give a newborn!

Babies respond to black and white, good contrast and graphic images. This book is perfect for young babies to just hold in front of them, but it does have a short shelf life. Past 6-8 months and your kid is getting too old. But still, it is a must for little babies, and the price makes it not a waste really. My kids spent hours looking at it.

As you are probably aware, very young infants are not able to discern subtle differences between similar colors, but they do see contrast, and that's where this book comes in. Nothing too fancy here: it's a book of fairly simple images that are all uniformly white against a uniformly black background. No words, no story, no pop-up tabs, just pictures. But for a very young baby, that's enough! One of the great things about this book is that it IS "open-ended" -- while your baby looks at the pictures you can "narrate" with your own story or comments. And frankly, you'd better do just that because otherwise by the umpteenth time you find yourself flipping through the same 8-10 pictures you'll start going nuts! Seriously, though, it's fun watching your infant progress over several weeks from staring vaguely at the pages to really looking at the images. Ours is fascinated by the page with the buttons on it, which may have to do with the fact that infants have been shown to like circular shapes. (And who can blame them, right? Circles are definitely cool.) Very glad we bought this book.

I will never forget the first time I saw these books read to a 3-month old baby girl. Sitting in her mother's lap, as soon as the book was opened, her eyes widened and she jumped a little. Her eyes remained fixed on the book as her mother turned the pages. I've given them as gifts at baby showers ever since. Naturally, when my first grandson came along, I was excited to give him the same experience. One day, my daughter-in-law sent me the nicest picture of him laying on the bed (doing his tummy time) with the book unfolded in front of him, and him happily holding his head up to look at each of the pictures. He is now 18 months old and an avid reader. Really! He loves reading books! I attribute that love at least in part to his very early exposure to the pleasure of a good book.

Another very special book for infants up to one year old. Infants see contrasting colors best: White, black and red. Babies will gaze at the pages of this book as you point the pictures out to them. It is great for lap/bonding time and teaches children to love and appreciate books at an early age.

I bought this book and "Black on White" (also by Tana Hoban) for my son when he was one month old. He liked them both, though "Black on White" was clearly his favorite (he reached for that one more often when they were both in front of him and there are far more tooth marks on that book). Still, the white silhouettes of familiar objects on a black background did catch his interest when I turned the pages for him, and the simple, two-color book did interest him early on. As with "Black on White," however, I find that his interest in "White on Black" waned when he turned about seven months old in favor of other, more colorful books. If you only want to buy one book of this type, I would suggest going with "Black on White." However, I believe the two books do provide a good variety for a very young infant.

Love this book for our newborn! All my kids loved it!

So impressed w/ this book. My grandson is only eight weeks old and seems to be not only engaged, but actually facinated by the images. I talk about the images and he reaches out and touches the images. I am so glad that I purchased this and the Black on White book. I feel that my grandson is being very stimulated.

Perfect size and just the right level of simplicity for the baby... Though I don't know if the headphones will be an easily recognizable picture. The copy I got had a scratched and frayed cover but that is the sellers responsibility.

amazing book for babies, great parent and baby quality time, exploring shapes and inventing stories

Meu filho amava os livros dela até os 3 meses

Naturalmente il bianco/nero sono i colori in contrasto per eccellenza. Catturano subito lo sguardo delle mie nipotine di pochi mesi. Interessante sfogliare il libro con loro descrivendo cosa vi è rappresentato. Ottima la consistenza e la rigidità delle pagine, facilmente punibile.

I had read that babies first react to black and white images, so I bought this book. Baby loved it right from birth. He would look at the images for ages, and developed his favourite page. I'm convinced it has helped his development, he's a bright boy and keen to learn.