9.The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

“He told his mother all about his adventures while she took off his wet socks. And he thought and thought and thought about them.”

Keats’ picture book takes an ordinary snowy day and turns it into an epic adventure for a young child. Not only does Keats take children on adventures sparked from everyday life, but when he published the book in 1962, he helped to subtly break down racial barriers. During a time when African-American children were not reflected in storybooks, Keats changed that with The Snowy Day whose protagonist, Peter, is a young African-American boy. A letter he received from a teacher briefly after publication says it all: “The kids in my class, for the first time, are using brown crayons to draw themselves. These are African-American children. Before this, they drew themselves with pink crayons. But now, they can see themselves.”