The Snowy Day

The Snowy Day

Ezra Jack Keats1962

I picked this up originally because its Keats (all Keats illustrations deserve a good peek) but also because it’s a very large format board book version of The Snowy Day. Actually it’s the most vibrant version of the book that I have ever come across. Much like the Good Night Moon copy we have, it makes the illustrations larger than life. After the third or fourth read I found that it wasn’t just the illustrations that made this book so appealing. It’s about a child going through his daily routine with a newfound sense of wonderment.

Keats took an ordinarily snowy, blah-day and made it extraordinarily amusing. Here we meet Peter, a little boy just waking up on a very, very, very, snowy day.

After his breakfast, which I’m sure was his mom’s idea, (way to go MOM) Peter goes out to explore this new winter wonderland, and towards the end of the book, makes a surprising discovery. . . . Not so surprising for you and I but none the less SUPER surprising for The Boog!

"He picked up a handful of snow --- and another, and still another. He packed it round and firm and put the snowball in his pocket for tomorrow. Then he went into his warm house."

-Im sure we can guess how that turned out!

On a side note, the influence for the characters in Keats’ books came from his community, while growing up in New York. Keats was able to create multi cultural characters that surpassed the traditional social boundries of his time. The character Peter (The Snowy Day) was the first African American child to have a central place in Children’s Literature. It won the prestigious Caldecott Award for the most distinguished picture book in 1963.

Peter appears in six more books growing from a small boy in The Snowy Day to adolescence in Pet Show. Young Peter paved the way for multi cultural characters in Children's Literature for future generations to come ;)