Keats Resources

Simply put, here is Ezra from A to Z—as seen by friends, biographers and other sources, and compiled, admiringly and critically, over 50 years. Look for lesson plans, reminiscences, videos and websites that enrich the reading and teaching of Keats.

Biographies

Biography for Beginners: All Authors, edited by Laurie Lanzen Harris. Favorable Impressions Publishers, 2005

Children’s Illustrators: Ezra Jack Keats, by Jill C. Wheeler. ABDO Publishing Co., 2005

Children’s Literature Review, Vol. 35, pp. 82-143. Gale Research, Inc., 1995

Ezra Jack Keats, Artist and Picture Book Maker, by Brian Alderson. Pelican Press, 1994

Ezra Jack Keats: A Bibliography and Catalogue, by Brian Alderson. Pelican Press, 2002

Ezra Jack Keats: A Biography with Illustrations, by Dean Engel and Florence Freedman. Silver Moon Press, 1995

Ezra Jack Keats: Picture Book Author of the Month, Greenville (Rhode Island) Public Library website

Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults: A Selection of Sketches from Something About the Author, Vol. 3, G-J, edited by Laurie Collier and Joyce Nakamura, Gale Research, Inc., 1993

The Man Who Became Keats, by Pat Cummings. School Library Journal, Vol. 47, Issue 5, 2001

A Memory, by Martin Pope, President of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation

A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of  “The Snowy Day,” by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson. Viking, 2016

The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, by Claudia J. Nahson (with Maurice Berger and  Emily Casden), Yale University Press, 2011

Curriculum Guides

Read Write Think
Creative Problem-Solving with Ezra Jack Keats (grades K-2)

Scholastic.com
Ezra Jack Keats Author Study (grades pre-K-2): Lesson plans for various Keats books, including The Snowy Day Discussion Guide and The Snowy Day Science Lesson

Scholastic Teaching Resources
Teaching with Favorite Ezra Jack Keats Books: Engaging, Skill-Building Activities That Help Kids Learn About Families, Friendship, Neighborhood & Community, and More in These Beloved Classics, by Pamela Chanko, 1995

Southwest Children’s Literature
Clementina’s Cactus: In the Classroom/Library (grades 6-8)

TeacherVision
A Teaching Guide to the World of Ezra Jack Keats (grades pre-K-3)

TeachingBooks.net
A guide to resources for the books of Ezra Jack Keats
A guide to resources for the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award winners

Selected Reading

Prizing Children’s Literature: The Cultural Politics of Children’s Book Awards, edited by Kenneth B. Kidd and Joseph T. Thomas, Jr., Routledge Press, Chapter 8: Peter’s Legacy: The Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, November 10, 2016

A Nation of Neighborhoods: Imagining, Cities, Communities and Democracy in Postwar America, by Benjamin Looker, Ph.D., Univ. of Chicago Press, Chapter 6: Brilliant Corners: Representing the Inner City, from Outside and from Within, 2015

Celebrate Ezra Jack Keats, by Carolyn S. Brodie. School Library Media Activities Monthly, Vol. 19, Issue 7, 2003

The Enduring Charm of Children’s Books, by Barbara Elleman. American Libraries, Vol. 26, Issue 7, 1995

The Enduring Footprints of Peter, Ezra Jack Keats, and The Snowy Day, by Kathleen T. Horning, The Horn Book, July 2016

From Sambo to Stevie: African-Americans in Picture Books, by Emily Casden. The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, Yale University Press, 2011

John Henry: Then and Now, by W. Nikola-Lisa. African American Review, Vol. 32, Issue 1, 1998

Letters, Twigs, Hats, and Peter’s Chair: Object Play in the Picture Books of Ezra Jack Keats, by W. Nikola-Lisa. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009

Literature and Art Through Our Eyes: The African American Children, by Patrice Flynn, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute 1995

The Many Rewards of Bookmaking, by Lillie Pope, Educational Director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation

Missing: An Ezra Jack Keats exhibit at the Jewish Museum underscores the children’s book author and illustrator’s striking ambivalence about his Jewishness, by Margorie Ingall, Tablet, September 2011

Selected Websites

The Ezra Jack Keats Collection A library within the De Grummond Children’s Literature Collection of the entire literary estate of Ezra Jack Keats, including original manuscripts, art, correspondence and awards

Internet Archive
A library of digitized Keats books, and film versions by Weston Woods. Books written or illustrated by Keats, including out-of-print titles, can be borrowed by people with reading disabilities.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day
Diversity booklists and activities for teachers and parents

One More Story
Online library of award-winning children’s books

Pinterest
Free members-only platform with many Keats-related resources

TeachersPayTeachers.com
An online marketplace for original educational resources, many free and low-cost

TeachingBooks.net
A guide to resources for the Ezra Jack Keats Books and Book Award winners

The Jewish Museum
Articles relating to the exhibition “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats”

Wikipedia
Ezra Jack Keats
Goggles
The Snowy Day
Whistle for Willie

Teaching Reading – Books by Dr. Lillie Pope

Teach Anyone to Read: The No-Nonsense Guide
Wordplay: A Dictionary of Idioms
Special Needs: Special Answers (co-authored with Deborah Edel and Abraham Haklay)