The Snowy Day

Peter wakes up to find his town covered in snow and so begins his journey in The Snowy Day. The story follows Peter as he participates in winter activities – he plays in the snow, makes snow angels, and slides down a hill. What fun! But, then he has a terrible dream that the sun has melted the snow! However, upon waking, Peter finds the snow still outside his window, and calls a friend to go outside and play.

The illustrations in The Snowy Day are quite simple. Peter's bold, red snowsuit sticks out among the white snow. The illustrations move with the text by illustrating what is written. This technique helps the reader point to the picture as they read. For example, the text says, "He walked with his toes pointing out like this:," the reader could point to the picture of his footprints in the snow while reading about how his toes are pointing. A well illustrated book not only enhances the text, but it also moves with the text for following along.

As a teacher, I would use this book to write a story about a snowy day. As a class, we would name activities we like to do in the winter-time. Then, we would all create one story. From that story, I would have the students be illustrators. This activity would demonstrate that there is more than one way of illustrating a story. We would also practice the way to enhance the story through pictures, and the way to use pictures and text together. It would be fun for the students to see how many different ways a book can be interpreted into pictures.

The Snowy Day. ISBN-10: 0140501827. Ezra Jack Keats. 1962. Caldecott Medal. Age 4-6. Fiction. African-American.