Ezra Jack Keats, author of books for black children, list 2

Some people see the title African-American Book Examiner and expect all the book authors discussed to be African-American. It's a logical assumption, but not quite correct. The African-American Books Examiner covers mostly black authors because black authors are more likely to write about African-Americans. However, authors who are not of African descent may also be discussed here if African-Americans are the subject matter of their writing, which is why today I am writing about the work of Ezra Jack Keats.

Keats is a children's book author and illustrator of Jewish descent whose book, The Snowy Day, featuring a little African-American boy called Peter, won the Caldecott Award in 1963. Below is a quote from Keats, telling how he ended up telling Peter's story.

"Then began an experience that turned my life around—working on a book with a black kid as hero. None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids—except for token blacks in the background. My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along. Years before I had cut from a magazine a strip of photos of a little black boy. I often put them on my studio walls before I’d begun to illustrate children’s books. I just loved looking at him. This was the child who would be the hero of my book." (from the Keats Foundation website)

If you look at the books page on the Keats Foundation website, you'll see that Keats wrote 24 children's books in his lifetime and illustrated at least 85. Among those are six books about Peter. 

As discussed in my first post, "Rise of African-American children's books," until Dorothy Sterling came along in the 50s, an author and advocate for publishing more books about black children, the only prominent book with black characters was the Uncle Remus stories. I add to that The Story of Little Black Sambo, 1899, by Helen Bannerman, a book the poet Langston Hughes and other black intellectuals thought presented a negative stereotype of black people and was not good for black children. "Little Black Sambo" was not an African-American child, but a dark child of India. Nevertheless, in America the character became a stereotype, "the pickaninny," and the name "sambo" became a racial slur.

Keats's books about Peter showed mainstream publishers that people would buy picture books for or about black children and that the stories could delight audiences, showing respect for people of color. The writers of his bio at the Keats website suggests that Keats, who was born Jacob (Jack) Ezra Katz, March 11, 1919, in Brooklyn, NY, felt a sense of kinship with minorities and people who had faced discrimination because he too had faced discrimination.

Feeling the sting of, antisemitism, he changed his name to Ezra Jack Keats two years after the end of World War II. Nevertheless, Keats has been accused of racism. Some people complained that a white man should not write about black children. The author disagreed, saying he wrote about his Brooklyn neighborhood and the color of the children was not the point of his books.

When bloggers and readers sent in their suggestions for children's books that show positive images of black children and black families, I saw Ezra Jack Keats's name from at least four parents and teachers. As I looked at his work online, I realized that I too had Jack Ezra Keats books in my home as a child, some of which were passed on to my children.

Here are the names of three Keats book titles sent to me and links to the blogs of people who recommended them.

• Pet Show
• Whistle for Willie
• The Snowy Day

Pre-K teacher MsLadyDeborah of My Brown Eyed View and from whom I shared a story on List 1 of African-American children's books said she reads Keats to her students:

Whistle for Willie, The Snowy Day and Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats are must reads on my lists. The books written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats were truly revolutionary during his era of authorship. Keats was the son of Jewish immigrants. He felt so strongly about the lack of images and stories about African Americans that he created the award winning series. (MsLadyDeborah)

Tami Winfrey Harris at Anti-Racist Parent was kind enough to publish my request for recommendations at that site and parents dropped by to leave multiple selections. You may visit her post comments section to see other recommendations. As one of the parents submitting her list says in the quote below, more than one parent suggested Keats work.

Several posters already mentioned this but I just thought I’d second (or third or whatever) books by Ezra Jack Keats. His illustrations are just gorgeous, amazing artwork and the stories are great too! I love The Snowy Day and another of my childhood faves was Pet Show. I’m pretty sure that we’ve given The Snowy Day to all of my little cousins. (Emylie, parent)

In addition, Mrs. Grapevine of MrsGrapevine.com, mother of two, included Keats's books on her list, saying "the artwork is amazing."

Ezra Jack Keats died from a heart attack in 1983.