But now, they can see themselves.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 16:14:48 Boxid IA153801 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Donorīostonpubliclibrary Edition Board bk. Before this, they drew themselves with pink crayons. "There was a teacher wrote in to Ezra, saying, 'The kids in my class, for the first time, are using brown crayons to draw themselves.' " Pope says. But one of the most touching reports came from a teacher whose students had read The Snowy Day.
Even children in places like decidedly un-snowy Florida could relate to Peter's adventures. Keats received thousands of fan letters from children, featuring their own versions of his deceptively simple collage illustrations. "They realized that you don't put a color on a child's experience of the snow." "It was no longer necessary that the book say, 'I am an African-American child going out into the snow today,' " Pope says. It was embraced by parents, teachers and children of all colors - and eventually the criticism subsided. It won the Caldecott Medal, given to outstanding picture books. "But was he trying to make a cause book, was he trying to make a point? No."īut The Snowy Day became a huge hit. "He said, well, all the books he had ever illustrated, there had never been a child of color, and they're out there - they should be in the books, too," Pope says. But Pope says Keats - who was white - wasn't necessarily trying to make a statement about race when he created Peter. Peter was among the first non-caricatured African-Americans to be featured in a major children's book. "The point is that this is a beautiful book about a child's encounter with snow, and the wonder of it," Pope says. Pope is the executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. It wasn't the point," Deborah Pope tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. And, though this is never mentioned in the text, Peter is African-American.
Peter has a red snowsuit, a stick just right for knocking snow off of trees, and a snowball in his pocket. Peter is the hero of the classic children's book by Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day, which turns 50 this year. One morning many years ago, a little boy in Brooklyn named Peter woke up to an amazing sight: fresh snow. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Snowy Day Subtitle 50th Anniversary Edition Author Ezra Jack Keats
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