The Snowy Day

Reprint, Viking Books for Young Readers, 1996

What happened after The Snowy Day? Read about Peter and his friends in Mr. Keats other books!

Mr. Keats' Other Books

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Ezra Jack Keats

Keats' (1916-1983) biography is quite fascinating; while his parents and teachers recognized he was artistically gifted very early in life, he was not able to formally study painting until 1949. After a year in Paris, Keats worked as a commercial artist drawing for publications as diverse as the Reader's Digest, Colliers, and Playboy.  He also drew jacket covers for popular books. In 1954 Crowell Publishing hired Keats to illustrate children's books by other authors, but in 1962 he wrote and illustrated The Snowy Day -- his inspiration for Peter was a group of photographs from a 1940 Life magazine which had been pinned to his studio board for many years.  To learn more about Keats, his art and access resources to enhance reading his works check out the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.

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Book Synopsis

The Snowy Day is sublimely simple: Peter experiences the joy of a snowy day. The illustrations are classic with vivid colors for which Keats earned the Caldecott Award. But the most remarkable thing about this book is that it broke the color barrier in mainstream children's publishing! 

Children and adults love this book! While I was reading it and pouring over the illustrations, the Boss dropped by my office and said, "My Mom read that book to me!"  So many of us are familiar with the book, we forget the significant change this book made in children's literature.

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Picture book, 16 pages. Peter experiences the joy of a snowy day.

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Research supports what parents know intuitively: being outside is healthy for children. It builds confidence, improves imagination and creativity and reduces stress and anxiety in children -- and so much more!

Learning Options

Family Read Aloud Time
The Snowy Day is great alternate if your child is too young to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa and Snowflake Bentley during cuddle time on a brisk day. It's also a really good book for a child to "read" on their own during quiet time.

Classroom Resource
The Ezra Keats Foundation has created two different lesson plans for PreK to 3rd grades, structured for the activity center classroom paradigm.

• A Flurry of Activities
• The Art of Snow

Learning at Home
A short winter nature study could be created from the Foundation's resources and the Stories Matter resources provided with the other books reviewed this week!

• Let it Snow, Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
• Snowflake Bentley
  
• Owl Moon
• Over and Under the Snow

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