A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day

by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Other authorsSteve Johnson (Illustrator), Lou Fancher (Illustrator)
Hardcover, 2016

Status

Available

Call number

J B KEA

Publication

Viking Books for Young Readers (2016), 60 pages

Description

"A celebration of the extraordinary life of Ezra Jack Keats, creator of The Snowy Day. The story of The Snowy Day begins more than one hundred years ago, when Ezra Jack Keats was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. The family were struggling Polish immigrants, and despite Keats's obvious talent, his father worried that Ezra's dream of being an artist was an unrealistic one. But Ezra was determined. By high school he was winning prizes and scholarships. Later, jobs followed with the WPA and Marvel comics. But it was many years before Keats's greatest dream was realized and he had the opportunity to write and illustrate his own book. For more than two decades, Ezra had kept pinned to his wall a series of photographs of an adorable African American child. In Keats's hands, the boy morphed into Peter, a boy in a red snowsuit, out enjoying the pristine snow; the book became The Snowy Day, winner of the Caldecott Medal, the first mainstream book to feature an African American child. It was also the first of many books featuring Peter and the children of his -- and Keats's -- neighborhood. Andrea Davis Pinkney's lyrical narrative tells the inspiring story of a boy who pursued a dream, and who, in turn, inspired generations of other dreamers"-- "A celebration of the extraordinary life of Ezra Jack Keats, creator of The Snowy Day"--… (more)

Barcode

4602

Language

Lexile

620L

User reviews

LibraryThing member Lisa2013
The Snowy Day is a 4 star book for me, though not particularly memorable from my childhood, even though it was introduced to my 4th grade class by one of our school librarians when it was a brand new book. As an adult I think I more fully appreciate it. I was very eager to read this book, a book
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about its creator.

I’m so delighted that this will be the last book I finish in 2016. It’s so apropos for what’s going on in current events. I guess that’s always been true, but I found it especially touching right now.

Stellar job! I found everything about this book impressive and spectacular: the biographical information, the art, the poem (just bits at times didn’t work that well for me, but overall it was excellent,) the materials included at the end, everything! I learned a lot and had my memory refreshed for some things. It does great justice to Ezra’s story and to Peter’s story too.

I was deeply emotionally moved by the artist’s story and by what he did with his career and his life. We desperately needed the Snowy Day book in 1962. Today we need books like this. Even though this is a children’s picture book (best suited to middle grade readers) I highly recommend it to every reader.
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LibraryThing member aratiel
Beautiful art, beautiful poetry. Great use of language.

ISBN

0425287688 / 9780425287682
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