Macaulay's Caldecott Medal Acceptance Speech

Have you ever read a story that, at first glance, looked simple, but as you read and reread it transformed into something worth contemplating over? David Macaulay’s Black and White challenges the reader to expand their mind and see the full picture. He asks readers in his Caldecott Medal Acceptance Speech to demystify their take on the entirety of the book. He encourages the reader to truly see the book in its entirety. To begin with, the four parts connect to make one story. The pictures, when looked at carefully, intertwine in storytelling, even though the color scheme may trick the eyes. For example, the robber escaping from the beginning of the book is seen in a field of cows in “Udder Chaos”, then on the train being held up by cows in

Macaulay wants readers to “distinguish between what they see and what they think they see." To fully interpret the image, readers must look at both the negative and positive spaces, both what’s spoken and what isn’t. For instance, the warning at the beginning of his speech states: “This presentation will appear to contain four little speeches that for obvious reasons cannot possibly be delivered or read at the same time by the same person. Then again, it may contain only one speech.” Macaulay then goes on to express how he advocates people to inquire why things look a certain way. Lastly, the point of view has readers looking at the story through the eyes of a child. His speech, similar to his book, contains four parts. In “Seeing Things”, he explains that not broadening one’s leaves one with visual complacency, visual narcosis, visual illiteracy. Macaulay encourages readers to truly see because “the better we see, the more inevitable curiosity becomes.” An absence of curiosity acts toward the first step of visual illiteracy. On the contrary, Black and White may have four stories in one book, instead of one story with four parts. On the other hand, it could have two