The Snowy Day
Written and Illustrated by: Ezra Jack Keats
Age Group: 1st and 2nd Grade
Published: 1962
The book The Snowy Day is about a little boy named Peter waking up and all he could see was snow outside his window. Like any other little boy, all he could think of is how much he wants to go outside and play in it. While walking the snow Peter is very observant to his footsteps and the sounds they make, he goes across the snow making different designs. He collects a stick and notices what he can do with that stick, like knock the snow off the tree. He does everything possible in the snow, has a snowball fight, makes a snowman, makes snow angels. Peter uses his imagination to pretend he is a mountain-climber going up and down the huge pile of snow. He decides to save a snowball for tomorrow and takes it in his house. Peter was so excited to tell his mother about the adventures he had for the day, while she was taking off his wet clothes and taking a bath. When he is about to get in bed, he looks in his pocket for the snowball he had saved and became very sad because it wasn't there anymore. He dreamed that all the snow was going to melt by the morning from the sun, but woke up in excitement to see that new snow was falling from the sky. He ventured out that day with his friend and started his journey again.
This book is a Caldecott Medal winner. This whole book is about the adventures a little boy had using his imagination. This book was written a long time ago, so it came to my interest that this book is about a black family, what I also noticed was that only the little boys mother is mentioned in this book, which I don't know is on purpose. Our culture today relates single mothers to being black women, and this book just fits that status unfortunately. Some people ask the question, would the book have a different meaning if it was a little white boy, I had to take time to think about that. I honestly at first didn't notice the color of his skin at first, but if Peter was a different race it might make a difference since he is a little boy living in what is an low income apartment with only his mother. Peter imagination takes over and he doesn't need any toys or anything to make him happy, which might give the impression to some people that he is from a poor family, then also relating to it in the end of the book when he is talking about his friend living across the hallway so Peter and his mother live in an apartment building and not a house.
The pictures in this book are very simple, but at the same time so effective. The pages are full of bright colors that grab the readers attention. The pictures go with the words perfectly when describing the emotions and thoughts that Peter is having. On each of the pages, you see exactly what Peter is doing, which helps young children who have maybe never seen snow before understand for instance what a snow angel, what it looks like and how you make it. The page that has only the image of Peter walking in the snow leaving footprints behind in his bright red snowsuit is more effective to me, it gives me full impression that he is in a place completely covered with snow, even though the illustrator just left the page white.
I would read this book to the students in my class. It is a nice simple book about a kid with great imagination and he really explores with that. The descriptive words that they use in this book are great when talking about snow, since some kids might have never seen it before.
