It’s a simple story about the adventures of a boy on a snowy day. He makes snow angels, slides down a snow pile and gets smacked by a snowball. It’s a boy who happened to be black and who happened to live in the city. He’s a kid just being a kid, and that’s enough.”

I had just started illustrating my first children’s book, and Ezra was working on his artwork for The Snowy Day. When I visited Ezra in his studio one day, there were sheets of paper on which he had applied and freely splattered paint, tacked up on all his walls, waiting to dry. Was Ezra, the […]

What motivates a man: To buck the winds of the status quo? To give voice to the voiceless? To right a wrong? I don’t know, but Ezra Jack Keats did! What inspires a man: To grab some ears! To break some china! To turn the world on its head! I don’t know, but Ezra Jack […]

I remember reading The Snowy Day to my baby sister thinking, ‘Here’s a kid who looks like me.’ On so many levels, this is such a groundbreaking piece of literature and artwork.”

Keats is astonishing for several reasons. One, he was not a television personality (remember when you didn’t have to be one to write a children’s book?). Two, because it never occurred to him to teach a contrived lesson, and certainly not to sell a product or tie-in to a movie. Rather, he did what very […]

When my daughter was little and we went looking for a book in the library, The Snowy Day was the first book the librarian suggested. It became one of her favorites, and subsequently, with her own children, it became their favorite too. It wasn’t until years later that I figured out why: The great thing […]

Growing up in New York in the 1970s, snow was magical. When it came, the city shut down. It became quiet and beautiful. And most of all, No School! For me, reading The Snowy Day as a kid on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, there was an innate connection to Peter in his iconic […]