“The Snowy Day” and “Who’s Under That Hat”
Melvin and I bought Avery a couple of new books two weeks ago at the Border’s in Wynnewood. We were in the area because we had to meet with our realtor to finalize some stuff and just for old time’s sake, we decided to check out our old favorite hang out spot. Back in the day when we lived in our duplex and we didn’t have much money, we would go to the Border’s and spend an entire day just reading books and having coffee.
Books + coffee = a lil’ piece of heaven on earth. I don’t know many people who would disagree.
Anyway, Avery’s at the stage when after we read him a book, he wants to eat it. So we picked out books that were made of cardboard so he could chew them afterwards to his little heart’s content. The books we bought were “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats and “Who’s Under That Hat” by David A. Carter.
“The Snowy Day” is probably one of my favorite books in Avery’s library so far. It is a story about a black kid named Peter and all the fun he has in the snow. Yes, you read right, a black kid. I was too thrilled to see this, especially at Border’s. Usually, one would have to go to a specialty bookstore to score a children’s book that has blacks as main characters, so I was too happy to run across this.
As it turns out, this book was written waaaay back in 1963 so my eureka moment was not. But discovering this book is not unlike finding a Picasso at a thrift store. I picked it up not knowing a thing about it except that it had a black kid on the cover, the artwork was marvelous, and it was made of cardboard. Come to find out, it is the recipient of a 1963 Caldecott Medal, was cited by the NY Public Library as one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century in 1996, won a citation from the Brooklyn Art Books for children in 1973 and was chosen by the US State Department for its Touring Collection in 1971. Excuuuse me!
You know, I really should look into a career in publishing because honestly, I have a keen sense about “what’s hot” in the literary world. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve blindly bought a book and then find out later that I’d just read something that’s just been added to the “Top 100 Books of All Time”.
Ok, anyway, the second book is “Who’s Under That Hat” by David A. Carter. It is exactly what the cover of the book says - a lift-the-flap pop-up adventure. Avery seems to enjoy all the colors although he’s too young to understand the lifting-the-flap-and-finding-something-underneath concept. He does understand that just like the other cardboard books he has, he can chew this one after we finish reading to him.
Tags: reading