We’ve been reading a lot of books about snow here at the house of Mombian, perhaps in hopes of coaxing something sleddable out of our unusually mild winter. Since today also marks the start of Black History Month, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Keats himself was white, but with The Snowy Day helped bring picture books featuring black children into the mainstream of children’s literature. The Snowy Day won the Caldecott Award in 1963, and has withstood the test of time. Children of all races can still relate to his protagonist Peter’s adventures in the snow, his longing to join the older boys in a snowball fight, and his disappointment when a carefully preserved snowball melts inside his home.
Black History Month should be first and foremost about black Americans’ achievements and experiences. By recommending Keats I do not mean to deny that. The LGBT-rights movement has, however, taught me the power of allies, and Keats was such to black Americans. He explained his motivation in writing The Snowy Day and its six sequels: “None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids—except for token blacks in the background. My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along.”