kamel622's Full Review: Ezra Jack Keats - The Snowy Day
During the month of January my curriculum for my daycare children revolves around snow, snowmen and hibernation. Since we’ve had quite a bit of snowy weather since early December this seems like a fitting time to discuss the beautiful white fluff that surrounds us.
The Snowy Day is a wonderful book that talks about the joy that snow can bring, especially to a young child.
Young Peter, an African-American boy, loves the snow and all of the fun he can have in it. He awakens one morning to snow covering everything as far as he can see.
Putting on his bright red snow suit he goes out to play in it and has fun making footprints, dragging his feet to make tracks, hitting a snow covered tree with a stick, making a smiling snowman, snow angels, climbing up a mountain of snow and sliding down the other side as well.
After returning home he tells his mother of all of his adventures and hopes that the snowball he put in his pocket will be there the later on.
Before he got into bed he looked in his pocket.
His pocket was empty. The snowball wasn't there.
He felt very sad.
The gouache and collage illustrations are simple and yet very captivating as well. The details help to tell the story and to make us feel as if we are in the snow with young Peter. The bright red snowsuit stands out so well against all of the white of the snow and helps to make us see how small Peter is in the world that is around him.
The text is a rather small black font, but it is placed so that it is easily seen and I have no problems holding the book up and reading it to my little daycare group.
While I love this book, 2 year old Cindy isn't quite as enthusiastic and one day told me she didn't like the book. I was surprised when she said it and asked her why but she didn't really have an answer for me. Now it could have been her mood that day, or just that she wanted a different book but it did surprise me.
4 year old Sonny liked this book much more than Cindy did and has asked for it a couple of times. He especially loves when Peter hits a tree with a stick and then when turning the page we see that the snow plops on top of his head. This always makes both children laugh and Sonny says that the tree doesn't like being hit by a stick. I like that this is his feeling about it, because I'm always reminding them when we are outside to be kind to our big sugar maple that is in the play yard. Seems the lesson is getting through...that makes me happy.
This book was a winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1963. I'm sure for the time it was quite a different book than most children were seeing on the library shelves. I think the fact that the main character was an African-American boy was a new step forward. I always appreciate checking out books that feature children of different ethnic backgrounds and feel that these books help the children I read to realize how similar we all are. Living in a small Midwestern town their exposure to different races is limited so I feel it is important to give them exposure in any way that I can.
Ezra Jack Keats wrote and illustrated this book in 1962 and had it published by Viking, a member of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.
The jacket price of this little 15 page board book is $6.99 US and $9.99 CAN and is available in hardcover and paperback format as well.
I think this book is excellent for children starting from around 2 years and would make a good early reader for children in 2nd or 3rd grade because of the simple limited text on each page.
I very highly recommend this book as a wonderful way to share the joys of snow with young children.
No book has captured the magic and sense of possibility of the first snowfall better than The Snowy Day. Universal in its appeal, the story has become...More at HotBookSale
In this book sparkling with atmosphere, a small boy experiences the joys of a snowy day. The brief, vividly expressed text points out his new awarenes...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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