About The Author:
When Ezra Jack Keats began creating children's books in the 1960s, he noticed
something missing from the genre and chose to correct it.
Keats had already illustrated several kids' books and was starting his second
when he made a simple but important decision: The main character would be black.
"None of the manuscripts I'd been illustrating featured any black kids-except
for token blacks in the background," Keats later wrote. "My book would have him
there simply because he should have been there all along."
The character, Peter, debuted in The Snowy Day, which won a Caldecott Medal.
Perhaps the strongest statement Keats made