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★★★★★ 5
A Story to Melt Your Heart
Format: Paperback
This is an easy review to write, as there is nothing I dislike about "The Snowy Day." Although it was published in 1962, it is still as fresh and new as, well, newly-fallen snow. Keats knew how to tell a story well, in both words and through his beautiful and colorful images. It is a perfect children's book, because it is written from their point of view, imbued with their unalloyed sense of wonder and enchantment. Most importantly, I think, is that Keats' main character, Peter, is a little African-American boy, who lives in an urban setting. Peter is neither caricatured nor is he a symbol of or vehicle for speaking about social issues, which would have been very easy to do at the time it was written. Instead, it is a timeless story about a young child discovering snow for the first time and trying to understand its mysterious nature. Although Peter does not fully comprehend snow, he enjoys experiencing it just the same. In simple and direct prose, Keats captures and conveys what it is like to be very young and to encounter the beauty and mystery of the natural world, even in an urban setting. I plan to read this book to the younger children in my church's Sunday school...but it's really for me.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2020
