I know other parts of the country are seeing signs of spring, but here in Colorado we can expect another couple months of snow. I want to share one of my favorite books about snow with you.
The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, received the Caldecott Award in 1963. I remember the book from my own childhood. The illustrations are unique. One of Keats techniques was to blend collage with gouache (an opaque watercolor mixed with art gum. His illustrations capture the magic of how snow can transform a neighborhood into beauty, softness, and mystery.
Keats set new ground in the early sixties by featuring a black child as the main character. He’d noticed a need and a lack in children’s books, and he helped to fill it.
In the story, Peter wakes up and finds snow covering everything “as far as he could see”. He puts on his snowsuit and runs outside. He makes different tracks in the snow by pointing his feet out and then in. He drags his feet slowly to make lines in the snow, and then uses a stick to make three lines at once. The stick is also “just right” for smacking a snow covered tree. As he hits the tree a big clump falls on his head.
At first, Peter has the world of snow all to himself. But then he comes across a group of big boys having a snowball fight. He knows he’s not big enough to participate. Instead he makes a dear smiling snowman and snow angels. He pretends he’s a mountain climber and climbs a “great big tall heaping” mountain of snow and slides all the way down.
Before going inside, Peter packs a snowball round and firm and puts it in his pocket to save for tomorrow. Inside his warm house he tells his mother of his adventures as she helps him undress and puts him in a nice warm tub. Before Peter goes to bed he checks on his snowball. He’s very sad to find only a damp pocket. In his dreams that night the sun melts all the snow. But when he wakes up he finds the snow is not only there, but new snow is falling. He calls to a friend across the hall and they go out together into the “deep, deep snow”.
Also See:
Snowflake Bentley – Jacqueline Briggs Martin
The Caldecott Medal and the Man for Whom It was Named