Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Caldecott 1963)

Ezra Jack Keats was a prolific writer of children's books, and he drew from the flavor of his own childhood, and the neighborhood where he grew up to find his stories. Snowy Day is the adventures of a young boy who is enjoying the snow fall. His adventures aren't extraordinary, but very relatable to children.

• Peter makes 2 trails as he drags his feet in the snow. Then there are suddenly 3 trails. What could have caused this?
• What happens when Peter strikes the snow-covered tree with a stick?
• What happens when you put a now ball in your coat pocket when you go inside?

Peter is just an oridnary boy experiencing a snowy day in the only way an ordinary boy can experience it.

One of the best features of this book, and all the books illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats is the art work. As an artist, Keats tends to use cut paper to make the shapes he desires, and the effect of the images are startling. So what can you do with this book in the classroom?

• Talk about what kinds of activities your students like to do when it snows.
• Make your own "Snowy Day Adventure" book
• Create cut-paper pictures.
• Using pre-formed panels, students can draw pictures of the story.

Those are just a few ideas. Feel free to make up your own ideas, and feel free to share them in the comments section below.

A Wrinkle in Time (1963 Newberry Medal Winner)

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1963)

I love this book. I am disappointed to learn that L'Engle never won another medal for her other books. In fact, That is the reason that I thought for a long time that you could only win the medal once. She did win several Honor Medals, but this is her only Newberry Medal winning book.

I discovered this book when I was in Fifth grade. we were doing book reports, and my teacher suggested this book to me. I loved the characters and the story. It was my first introduction to a fully-rounded female character. Meg was brilliantly constructed, and it made me want more of those kinds of characters.

Let's talk about the basic story. Meg Murray is the oldest of four kids in her family. There are the twins, Sandy and Denny, and Charles Wallace. Her parents are both genius scientists. At the moment, they have been missing their father for several years. He went to work on a research project for the government. At first the whole family was with him, then the project required them to be away, then he just stopped sending messages at all.

This has made things very hard for Meg. First the Murrays live in a small town where there is lots of gossip. Second, Meg is very smart about things like mathematics and science, but she has her own tricks for doing the problems, so the teachers don't appreciate her. Third, Charles Wallace is considered to be a bit on the slow side by the town since he didn't start to speak until he was three, and then he just started speaking in complete, and rather loquacious language.

So that is the background of the story. Let's get into the exciting part.

Meg meets three mysterious women through Charles Wallace-Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Whatsit. The women inform Charles Wallace and Meg that their father is used a tesseract to jump to another place in the universe, and he is in trouble. Only Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe can save him. (I forgot about Calvin. He's a boy a bit older than Meg that Meg and Charles Wallace meet on the way to an old house where the three ladies are living. Calvin is like Meg because he is smarter than most people, and like the twins because he is athletic, and like Charles Wallace because he has the ability to understand people.)

Anyway, the ladies take the three children to a variety of places in their attempt to find Dr. Murray. There is a two-dimensional universe, and a planet with large hairy creatures that don't have eyes, but are wonderful and caring. Eventually, though, they find the planet with It.

I won't say anything more for fear of giving away too much, but this is the book that got me to try to memorize the periodic table of elements (which I gave up on later) and to work on my mathematics. It is also the book that got me hooked on Science Fiction.

This is also the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time, so it is the perfect time to check it out for the first time or the hundredth.