The Snowy Day

Bibliography

Keats, E. (1962). The snowy day. Ill. by Ezra Jack Keats, New York: Viking Press. ISBN: 978-0-670-65400-0

   

Plot Summary

One day young Peter awakens to a blanket of snow outside a normally bustling city. Peter’s day in the snow is chronicled as he climbs snow mountains, builds snowmen, and attempts to join the big kids in an epic snowball fight. At the end of the day, Peter keeps some snow in his pocket to remember the day. When he finds the snow melted, Peter is propelled into sadness until the next day when he sees a new blanket of snow outside his window.

Critical Analysis

Ezra Jack Keats was inspired to write The Snowy Day by photographs released of a young African American boy in Life magazine in the 1940s. Over the next twenty years, Keats would take down and put up the pictures. When Keats finally decided to write Peter’s tale, he wanted to focus on the simple joy of being a boy alive on a certain day.

The first page is one of the most intricate illustrations in the book. Patterns adorn the wallpaper and Peter’s pajamas. Simple blocks of green and yellow represent a city outside his bedroom walls. Other than this first page, and the bathtub with the patterned tile floor, the images in The Snowy Day are simple. Most of the pages are a singular block color with snow. The snow has shades of purple and blue. Peter’s outfit is a large red snowsuit that immediately draws the eye. The majority of the images of Peter playing the snow only show his eyes with little to no sign of a mouth.

The text is short and simple. Keats combines the text and images so they work together. For example, once Peter makes it outside he begins walking certain ways. “He walked with his toes pointing out, like this:” and the reader’s eyes immediately follow the direction of Peter’s feet in the snow. The next page follows the same format “He walked with his toes pointing in, like that”. Keats also uses dashes to describe the slowness of Peter’s walking and the quickness of snow falling on one’s head.

This was the first book written and illustrated by the Keats, who was white. Peter's ethnicity is not a factor in The Snowy Day, despite the fact that it was published during the height of the civil rights movement in 1962. In fact, other than the color of his skin, Peter's race is never mentioned as a plot point in the book. The Snowy Day was the first book with an African American protagonist to win the Caldecott Medal in 1963. It is also only one of three books with an African American protagonist to win a Caldecott Medal.

Horning, Kathleen T. “The Enduring Footprints of Peter, Ezra Jack Keats, and The Snowy Day.” The Horn Book, 7 July 2016, www.hbook.com/2016/07/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/the-enduring-footprints-of-peter-ezra-jack-keats-and-the-snowy-day/.

Review Excerpt(s)

1963 Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner
“Keats’s sparse collage illustrations capture the wonder and beauty a snowy day can bring to a small child.”—Barnes & Noble

“Ezra Jack Keats’s classic The Snowy Day, winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, pays homage to the wonder and pure pleasure a child experiences when the world is blanketed in snow.”—Publisher’s Weekly

Connections

In the book Peter attempts to save a snowball as a keepsake for the day. A science lesson can be done during the winter months in states that receive snow. Take students outside to play and then have them each bring a snowball inside. Place them inside a styrofoam cup. Towards the end of the day, check on the snowballs. Discuss why the snow may have melted. A lesson in matter can be brought in as well, since the snowball was solid and has turned into a liquid. Warmer states could use snow cones, crushed ice, or ice cubes for the lesson.

Use the first picture as a writing prompt. “One day you wake up to snow outside your window. How do you spend your day?” Or use the last page to continue writing the story of Peter and his friend.  

Research Ezra Jack Keats and the Civil Rights Era and the influence this novel had during the time period.  

*Other books related to Ezra Jack Keats and The Snowy Day

Pinkney, A., Johnson, S. & Fancher, L. (2016). A poem for Peter : the story of Ezra Jack Keats and the creation of The snowy day.  ill. by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson New York: Viking / Penguin Young Readers Group. ISBN:0425287688

Keats, E. (1964). Whistle for Willie. New York: Viking Press. ISBN:0140502025