Season III, Post 10: "The Snowy Day"

Hello, I'm Richard Nicholas Nimz, prospector of the written word.  Another Caldecott book this time, the winner for 1963.  Like Make Way for Ducklings, this book made quite an impact.  However, I'd argue that this book had a bigger one.  This is Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day.

Keats, E. J.  (1962).  The Snowy Day.  Scholastic Press: New York.

Summary: One day, a boy named Peter gets out of bed to find that it's snowed.  He gets his clothes on and treks out, discovering the fun things he can do with the snow.  Finally, he heads home, bathes, and goes to sleep.  The next day, though, the snow remains, so he finds a friend and goes off to see what the day has in store.

Thoughts: This is really just an innocuous story.  Nothing really big happens in it: it's just a kid enjoying a snow day.  The collage artwork makes it stand out, though: it's an odd artform, but it's colorful and perfectly spaced.  Furthermore, Peter is just adorable as he goes about the day.  The book's just a nice slice of life to show your kids.

Its historical impact, though, lies partially in the collage artwork, and more partially in fact that Peter is black.  This was published in 1962, mind.  Having a black main character was a rare idea back then.  What makes this, in my opinion, a little bit better, is the fact that the black Peter was written very well by the white Ezra Jack Keats.  In an age where white, male writers are still nervous about writing a person that is not white or male, it can be reassuring to show that it can be done really well.  You don't even have to be political all the time, just show the audience a life.  I'd argue this is part of The Snowy Day's charm: showing Peter doing things that cross racial boundaries without making an issue about it.  Peter's not a black kid with a million social issues hanging over his head, he's just a black kid a white kid can relate to.  Just as P.S. Be Eleven's education about political issues has it's place in the library, so to does this thoroughly apolitical romp.  Feel free to give it a try.