23 October 2016 A POEM FOR PETER: THE STORY OF EZRA JACK KEATS AND THE CREATION OF THE SNOWY DAY by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson, ills., Viking, November 2016, 60p., ISBN: 978-0-425-28768-2

 

“I can honestly say that Peter came into being because we wanted him; and I hope that, as the Scriptures say, ‘a little child shall lead them,’ and that he will show in his own way the wisdom of a pure heart.”

--Ezra Jack Keats, from his 1963 Caldecott Award acceptance speech

 

“All this hate found an outlet in the America First campaign. Industrialist Henry Ford, one of the most prominent supporters of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, was a supporter. The anti-Semitic radio host Father Coughlin, whose followers sometimes attacked and beat up Jewish people, urged his audience to join America First, and they did. America First opponents and supporters would show up to competing rallies that turned into fights, with isolationists yelling ‘Jews” and internationalists yelling ‘Nazis!’”

--from “‘America First’: Donald Trump’s slogan has a deeply bigoted backstory” by Libby Nelson, Vox.com

 

“An important thing happened

around this time.

War rose up throughout the world.

Hitler, an evil beast of a man,

was on a mission

to rid every crevice and country

of all Jews,

and anyone else born with even a drop

of difference.

 

Uncle Sam pointed his finger,

stared hard.

Told Ezra: I Want You!

Drafted him quick,

asked him to serve

the Red,

White.

and Blue.

 

Ezra went, proud to fight.

Eager to help end HItler’s reign.

Packed his pencils, brought his brushes,

marched to the army.

Took his soldier self

to the Air Force division.

and served Uncle Sam a big dose

of draftsmanship.

 

World War II needed posters

and booklets.

Needed charts.

Needed art.

Needed maps and pictures

drawn by the hand of a man whose

lines and arrows sprang from the page

to help soldiers leap to duty.

 

After the war,

Ezra did something many Jews did

when the want ads said:

‘No Jews Need Apply.’

 

To help himself get a job,

Jacob (Jack) Ezra Katz

rearranged his name.

Shortened that name,

twisted its rhythm.

Helped it roll off the tongue.

 

Yes, yes--Ezra Jack Keats.

Had a nicer ring to it--for some.

It was a name that only hinted at

his heritage.

Only winked at where he’d

come from,

but never came out and said.”

 

No matter how many times I read this passage from A POEM FOR PETER, and despite already knowing this history, it’s still difficult to wrap my head around the reality: Due to religious discrimination, an American veteran was compelled to alter his name in order to get a decent job after having faithfully served his country.

 

It’s even more jarring to look at how little things have changed. I’m moved by the story of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star parents of a heroic Muslim-American soldier who was killed in Iraq in 2004. Just months ago, the Khans were attacked by a major-party presidential candidate and his supporters because of their religion.

 

Can’t America finally get it right?

 

A POEM FOR PETER is a stunningly-beautiful book. Andrea Pinkney’s “tribute poem” and the illustrator duo’s acrylic, collage, and pencil illustrations have already received widespread critical praise in advance of the book’s publication. The quality of the writing and illustrating makes this an award contender and an essential addition to any public and elementary school library.

 

But this is more than just a beautiful book.

 

We are shown how, in each phase of his life, Ezra Jack Keats put his artistic talents to good use. Then he employed those talents to make a lasting difference at a critical moment in America’s history--the Civil Rights Movement

 

As the son of impoverished immigrants, Keats earned money painting store signs as a child. His teenage artwork earned him scholarships to art school, but, when his father died of a heart attack the day before high school graduation, he couldn’t go. As a young man, he painted murals for the WPA. During WWII, he painted posters and charts for the Air Force. And then he honed his skills, illustrating comic books and children’s books for others, until he was ready to bring to life a Black child in a red suit.

 

During the days that Ezra Jack Keats was working on THE SNOWY DAY, there was tension in the country as southern universities were being desegregated, sit-ins at lunch counters were taking place, and the Freedom Rides were happening. This was the world into which Keats’s young Black character was born, a character inspired by photos of a little boy in Life magazine that Keats had kept tacked up on his wall for more than twenty years.

 

“Brown-sugar boy in a blanket of white.

Bright as the day you came onto the page.

From the hand of a man

whose life and times,

and hardships,

and heritage,

and heroes,

and heart,

and soul

led him to you.”

 

As noted by Erin Clancy, curator at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, “[Keats] felt a sort of shared experience with others who had gone through discrimination because of his experiences as a Jewish child, his socioeconomic status, also just because he was a small, sort of artistic loner growing up.”

 

Beginning with THE SNOWY DAY, Ezra Jack Keats populated his picture books with characters drawn from a broad spectrum of skin colors and varied economic circumstances, a radical departure from what was seen in lily-white picture books in the 1950s.

 

So it was that Ezra Jack Keats played a pivotal role in the evolution of children’s books in America. Half a century later, his books are still captivating and relevant, This beautiful and important tribute to him is one you’ve got to see.

 

Richie Partington, MLIS

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