Animals Black and White

Phyllis Limbacher Tildes wrote and illustrated this non-fiction piece titled Animals Black and White. The book is sort of in a riddle-like, question and answer format which makes you want to continue to turn the pages. You get a small clue from the illustrations, but more importantly the text gives lots of great factual details about the animal; so as you read the book like a game, it makes learning about the traits of the animal much more fun. As you can imagine, all of the animals that are mentioned in the book are black and white, including penguins, panda bears, zebras, orca whales, skunks and butterflies. I enjoyed the art work, and the question and answer theme of the book, and I could see it being used to introduce a Science lesson, or as a fun read at the end of the day or after lunch or a special area class.

The book is suitable for Kindergarten to 3rd grade readers, and I could see kids reading this book with a buddy in a way that one student is teaching another about the animals as the questions are all answered. For a pre-activity, you could have the students think about as many animals that are black and white to see if they can predict what animals will be in the book. Make a list at the front of the board and check them of as you read the book. Later, have students break off in groups and do a little more research on each of the animals from the book, and any others that they come up with that are black and white. The kids could make posters with all of the facts, and create a classroom quilt filled with animals and their traits. This is a book that gives lots of teaching opportunities.