A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day
CCBC Review:
As a child in the 1960s, Andrea Davis Pinkney was affected profoundly by The Snowy Day. It was the first book she encountered featuring an African American child like her. Her ingenious poem is a celebration of both the character Peter and of his creator, Ezra Jack Keats. Keats started out life as a poor Jewish boy in Brooklyn who dreamed of being an artist. Peter of The Snowy Day makes several of what Pinkney describes as “peek-a-boo” appearances throughout this lyrical account of Keats’ life, “waving at the reader.” When Keats was working early in his career as a comic-book artist, for example: “The brown-sugar boy / in a blanket of white / began to ignite by what kids saw, / and didn’t see, / in the not-so-funny comics / Ezra was made to draw. / All the heroes in all the comics / were always as white as a winter sky.” This tour-de-force is illustrated brilliantly with acrylic, collage, and pencil artwork that gives a true sense of Keats’s own artwork. ©2016 Cooperative Children’s Book CenterIllustrated by Lou Fancher, Steve Johnson
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 7-10
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Formats:
Picture book
Poetry
Subjects:
African Americans
Art and Artists
Books and Reading
Diversity subject:
Black/African
Publisher:
Viking
Publish Year: 2016
Pages: 52
ISBN: 9780425287682
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 811 Pinkney