Keats’ neighborhood includes Peter, Louie, Archie, Amy, Susie, Roberto, and the adults who make their lives run smoothly. Each of these children is central to at least one story and then each pops up as a supporting character in others. In addition, there are Jennie and Maggie, and, of course, Peter’s dog Willie.
Peter, perhaps the most famous Keats character, was introduced to his audience as a youngster of about four in The Snowy Day. This story details Peter’s adventures in a city covered with snow. Famous for its tender quality, Keats skillfully weaves into his plot a sense of the dangers surrounding Peter’s protected and innocent world of childhood. Peter yearns to join the snowball fight of the older boys, but finds he is too small when a snowball accidentally hits him in the chest and knocks him to the ground. While the characters of Keats’ books live in the world of their imaginations, they are consistently challenged with problems that are real and recognizable to his young readers. Here Keats establishes one of his important trademark story elements in the ability of his characters to deal with problems, to change their outlooks and to grow.
In the books that follow The Snowy Day, Peter grows up and is confronted with the problems of becoming an older brother (Peter’s Chair), of facing the ridicule of his peers when he decides that he would like to invite a girl, his friend Amy, to his birthday party (A Letter to Amy), and of escaping the tyranny and violence of a gang of older boys in his neighborhood (Goggles!).
Louie is the quietest member of the Keats community. Living alone with his mother in a very busy city, Louie never speaks. It is during the puppet show, presented by Susie and Roberto in the book Louie, that Louie, overwhelmed by affection for the puppet named Gussie, bursts into conversation. This joyous breakthrough also allows Susie and Roberto to develop their own understanding and compassion for this lonely and silent child.
Louie goes on to discover that he won’t lose friends when he moves from his old neighborhood, and that he can make new ones (The Trip). He learns to reach out to explore his world, to stand up to accusations of being a thief, and, miraculously, to find a man who learns to love him and his mother (Louie’s Search). Finally, with the help of his new father, Louie gains the confidence to confront the taunts and teasing of his peers, causing them to envy what they once ridiculed, (Regards to the Man in the Moon).
Susie, Peter’s younger sister, appears in several Keats books and, in addition to putting on puppet shows with Roberto, becomes a great friend to Louie, accompanying him into the galaxy in an imaginary space ship built out of found objects and imagination (Regards to the Man in the Moon).
Archie is Peter’s best friend. Together, in Hi Cat! they attempt to stage entertainments for all of the kids in the neighborhood, but their efforts result in one failure after another. It is Archie who emerges from the string of catastrophes with the greatest calm and cheer, seeing the bright side and sharing his outlook with Peter. It is this quality of resourcefulness that continues to develop as Archie grows into the boy who is able to enter a pet show even though his pet has disappeared (Pet Show!).
Amy, the title character in A Letter to Amy, is the lone girl who has to brave the crowd of boys who will be at Peter’s birthday party. And she does. With courage and conviction, it is Amy who brings the most unusual present, having trained her parrot to wish Peter a Happy Birthday! It is Amy who proves that girls do not ruin birthday parties, they make them better!
In Dreams, Amy is the girl in whom boys can confide. Roberto, (the puppeteer in Louie, and one of the contestants in Pet Show,) has a night of fantastic adventure after complaining to Amy how difficult it is to get to sleep. From his bedroom window, Roberto protects Archie’s pet cat from an angry dog on the street in a surprising and unusual way.
Then there is Jennie, who wears a very special hat on Sundays (Jennie’s Hat). And Clementina who, with her father, discovers the beauty of nature on a trip to the desert (Clementina’s Cactus). Maggie tracks down the “pirate” who stole her pet (Maggie and the Pirate).
While Keats has drawn an environment filled with children, he has not forgotten the importance of the adults in this world. Peter’s mother and father are stable and gentle supporters of Peter’s adventures. Louie’s mother and father believe in him and back him up, through all of his emotional turmoil and growth. Perhaps another reason why adults and children are fascinated by Keats’ books is that these books propose accessible solutions to familiar and real intergenerational problems.
The children in Keats’ neighborhood are African American. Hispanic, Asian and Anglo. The harsh environment of the inner city is recognizable, but endowed with the color and warmth found in the wonder of childhood.
Not to be overlooked is the number of wordless books included in the Keats neighborhood, perfect for the pre and early reader. These books offer parents the opportunity to make up their own stories based on Keats’s vivid illustrations. In Clementina’s Cactus, a little girl discovers the wonders and beauty of the desert. Skates, Kitten for a Day and Psst Doggie recount the adventures of animals in delightful situations. A dog finds himself among kittens, thinks he is a cat, and enjoys it! Cat and dog dance in costumed folk dances! Two dogs put on a prize performance on a skating rink! As a result, a skating rink in Tokyo was named after Keats.
The Keats neighborhood, created in the books he wrote and illustrated, provide parents, educators and caretakers with the kind of books we all look for for our children. These books encourage the highest level of visual literacy, reading fluency, as well as providing age appropriate models for problem solving and social development.
(For more on these books, go to Ezra’s Books on the BOOKS/CHARACTERS on this website).
