Author Spotlight: Ezra
Jack Keats
It's hard to imagine an America in
which kiddie lit was racially segregated, but that was the way it was . . .
until Ezra Jack Keats (1916-1983) did what was in his heart in the 1960s. He
broke the color line with his simple, striking watercolor and gouache (oily
watercolor) images and sweet stories of American childhood. That's because he
was a great children's author/illustrator . . . and he was multicultural before
multicultural was cool.
A Caucasian artist with a 1960s
mentality, Keats decided to start creating children's books with
African-American characters in everyday, all-American scenes. The point wasn't
that they were African-American children. The point was that he didn't make a
big DEAL out of the race of his characters; they just were.
Believe it or not, that was daring
and original in the days in which the races lived separate lives, and you just
never saw black characters, much less heroes and central characters, in
mainstream media. So the children's stories that broke the color line made
American history, and made Ezra Jack Keats one of the most beloved American children's
authors of all time.
His book, The Snowy Day, won the Caldecott Medal in 1963, the highest award
in children's literature, and was named by the New York Public Library as one
of the 150 most influential books of the 20th Century.
A sequel of sorts, Whistle For Willie, is just as engaging
Keats was born to a poor Polish
Jewish immigrant family, and his art talent surfaced young. Upon his father's early
death, though, he turned down three art school scholarships to go to work to
support his family. He painted murals, illustrated comic books, and in World
War II designed camouflage patterns. After the war, he studied fine art and
began doing magazine covers. Then he was asked to illustrate a children's book.
The rest is history.
Through his career, Keats
illustrated 85 children's books, and wrote and illustrated 24 more of his own.
Upon his death, he decreed that his
continuing book royalties should go into a charitable foundation to increase literacy,
inspire creativity and love of learning, and increase children's appreciation
of the arts.
See: www.ezra.jack.keats.org
