Could not resist another "winter" story for those in the snowy climes! This book is a classic and a must in every child's library.
Ezra Jack Keats tells the story of Peter, experiencing a snowy day and the magic it brings. Written in 1962, it is one of the first books to "break the color barrier" in children's literature. With intriguing illustrations and memorable characters, it is a
Caldecott Award winner.
Activities for kids can also be found at the foundation website. Another of Keats's stories,
Peter's Chair, is a great story for young children experiencing the addition of a sibling to the family.
Check out this favorite and others by this wonderful American children's book author.
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My favorite Keats book is definitely The Snowy Day, though Whistle for Willie comes a close second. What I particularly love about The Snowy Day is how the pace and activity of the book focus the reader on the present, just as a child’s perspective is anchored not so much in the past and future (as the perspective of most adults is…) but in the present. I also think Keats masterfully captures Peter’s worry that the snow will be gone the next day—Peter dreams that it all melts—and his joy when he wakes up to find that more snow has fallen!
ReplyDeleteIn Whistle for Willie, I love the scene where Peter has been spinning around and around, to make himself dizzy, and how Keats portrays the lights on the traffic signals as displaced from the signals, brilliantly capturing how crazy things look when you're dizzy.
Okay, one more: I also love Hi Cat!, and particularly the scene where Archie has been eating a mint-green ice-cream cone and has some of the ice-cream on his face. Then Peter’s dog Willie comes and licks his face clean! (I have wonderful childhood memories of this very illustration…).
It was also interesting for me to learn that Keats's focus on ethnically diverse characters in his books was in part the result of his own experience of antisemitism (he was Jewish) after WWII. He had deep sympathy for the racial and ethnic prejudices suffered by African-Americans and Latinos in the U.S. He was truly a multicultural leader!