The Snowy Day

By Ezra Jack Keats

1963 Caldecott Winner

 

This award-winning picture book beautifully illustrates the wonder of waking up as a young child, looking outside the window, and seeing a fresh, thick snow covering your world.  

Peter put on his red snowsuit and ran outside. He discovered that his boots made patterns in the snow as he crunched along the sidewalk. A stick could make a pattern also, but it could also knock snow out of a tree, right on top of his head. Peter wasn’t quite old enough to play snowball fight with the big boys, but he was quite content on his own, making a snowman and snow angels. Not wanting the fun to end, he packed a nice round snowball and put it in his pocket for the next day. After a warm bath, Peter checked on his snowball and was sad to find that it was gone! Never fear, though, for the next morning, a fresh snow had fallen and Peter could once again play outside.

I was so happy to see the new Forever stamp series with images from The Snowy Day, for this is an absolutely beautiful book, but also a very important book. It isn’t only a universal story of a child’s wonder and joy at a fresh snowfall. What is special about this book is that Peter is a little black boy. For the first time, a black child was pictured as the central character. His race is never mentioned in the text. Peter is just a little boy joyously playing in the snow. I can just imagine how validating it must have been for a black child to finally see himself in a picture book! 

This book teaches a lesson to the world. Yes, we do come in many colors. Deep down, though, we are the same. What child, black or white, or any color in between, wouldn’t be full of wonder and joy at a Snowy Day.