It won the Caldecott Medal, given to outstanding picture books. "But was he trying to make a cause book, was he trying to make a point? No."īut The Snowy Day became a huge hit. "He said, well, all the books he had ever illustrated, there had never been a child of color, and they're out there - they should be in the books, too," Pope says. But Pope says Keats - who was white - wasn't necessarily trying to make a statement about race when he created Peter. Peter was among the first non-caricatured African-Americans to be featured in a major children's book. "The point is that this is a beautiful book about a child's encounter with snow, and the wonder of it," Pope says. Pope is the executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. It wasn't the point," Deborah Pope tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. And, though this is never mentioned in the text, Peter is African-American. Peter has a red snowsuit, a stick just right for knocking snow off of trees, and a snowball in his pocket. Peter is the hero of the classic children's book by Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day, which turns 50 this year. One morning many years ago, a little boy in Brooklyn named Peter woke up to an amazing sight: fresh snow. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Snowy Day Subtitle 50th Anniversary Edition Author Ezra Jack Keats
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