The Snowy Day – 50th Anniversary Edition
Viking published a special anniversary edition of The Snowy Day, with eight pages of bonus material on its creation and the public response.
Weather or not...
Even on a fine, snowless February afternoon, Ezra’s illustrations set the mood for fresh air and reading at The Snowy Day StoryWalk in Phalen Park, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
One sunny Saturday, the Brooklyn Public Library held an outdoor festival, “Snowy Day in May,” featuring readings, performances, face painting, games—and cotton snow.
In Concert
Every summer the EJK Family Concert in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park offers a Keats book or two read by a great storyteller. In this anniversary year, Sesame Street’s Gordon, Roscoe Orman, fit the bill.
The second-graders at Cooper Mountain Elementary, in Beaverton, Oregon, didn’t just read The Snowy Day, they composed a musical score for it! Led by music teacher Jennifer Mohr, the students performed, on instruments ranging from woodblocks to wind chimes, variations on The Snowy Day.
Big Productions
The foundation Books for Kids celebrated The Snowy Day with 2- to 4-year-olds at the Cooper Park Child Care Center in Brooklyn, resulting in extra-large, beautifully rendered books.
Peter sings! Adventure Theatre, the oldest Washington, D.C.-area children’s theatre, mounted a world premiere musical of The Snowy Day. The sold-out show earned rave reviews.
“Well Worth a Tribute”
Professor Ben Railton wrote a thoughtful essay about The Snowy Day and Ezra’s life and times.
Children of the Book
The Snowy Day was front and center for World Read-Aloud Day, on March 7. In New York City, Miss USA Alyssa Campanella, and children’s author Katherine Paterson (with an appearance by Clifford the Big Red Dog) gave readings to a rapt audience, hosted by the literacy organization LitWorld. On the West Coast, LeVar Burton read The Snowy Day the Keats classic for Google+. Both events were live-streamed around the world. And later, how many parents read The Snowy Day as a bedtime story because their childhood favorite was also their children’s?
In the News/Media
The Snowy Day made headlines across the country as media outlets reported on the book’s impact and influence. See why it’s as relevant as ever.
From our In-Box
“I cannot express to you the profound impact that books like The Snowy Day (and it was one of only a few) had on me. In my childhood I was Peter….My own passion for great stories prompted me to buy all that I could find on Mr. Keats and share it with my own daughters, Grace and Peri, who love his work.”
—Kai Jackson, news anchor at WBFF in Baltimore and documentary filmmaker
“As a child, The Snowy Day was my very favorite storybook. It was the first gift I gave my 2-year-old niece. It’s her favorite book as well. Yesterday, her baby brother was born. His name is Ezra James. Thank you for your legacy of kindness.”
—Kathy Enright, Cardiff by the Sea, California
World of Wonder
Peter has friends all over the world, as these photographs from 2012 show. (From left) Peter posed in Morocco with smiling friends; he gained new fans in remote Makuleke Village, South Africa; and a schoolgirl in Ghana read about snow.
