BLACK MEETS WHITE

Plainly intended as a follow-up to the several board-book introductions to black and white, not to mention Little Blue and Little Yellow, this pairs Black (“dark as night, cool, mysterious”) with White (“bright, clean, plain as day”). It’s a lyrical love match that moves from abstract to concrete, through clouds and stars and polka dots to a checkerboard, stripes and finally twirling ribbons that meld into gray—all assisted by die-cut pages, holes and a large tab that pulls down the eyelids of both a cat and a mouse on the final spread. An occasional glimpse of red or pink makes the neutral colors even more vivid, and Jones’s sturdy, sensitive paper engineering further enhances the presentation’s rhythm and energy. This color study will definitely get—and survive—repeat visits. (Picture book. 3-5)