美国国家公共电台 NPR 'A Poem For Peter' Recalls One Unforgettable 'Snowy Day'

'A Poem For Peter' Recalls One Unforgettable 'Snowy Day'

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More than 50 years ago, a book called "The Snowy Day" broke the color barrier in mainstream² children's publishing. The story featured a boy named Peter wandering through his neighborhood after a snow storm. Peter was black. The book has become a classic. It's in my house. And now, there's an animated³ holiday special streaming on Amazon, as well as a new book called "A Poem For Peter," which pays tribute to "Snowy Day's" author and illustrator, Ezra Jack⁴ Keats. NPR's Lynn Neary has more.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE⁵: Andrea Davis Pinkney says, when she was asked to write a book about Ezra Jack Keats, she jumped at the chance like a kid on a sled. That's because "The Snowy Day" was her favorite book as a child.

ANDREA DAVIS PINKNEY: I slept with "The Snowy Day." I loved that book. It was like a pillow to me. That's how much comfort it brought me.

NEARY: A comfort because this book was about people like her.

PINKNEY: What I saw was myself. You know, up to that point, there were many picture books, but they were in rural settings. And here was this book that made my life, my experience valid⁶ - city streets, sidewalks, stoops, everything that I held so dear.

NEARY: As she worked on the biography, Pinkney learned that Keats was also a city kid, the child of immigrants who fled anti-Semitism in Poland. He always wanted to be an artist. But when Keats was still a teenager, his father died. Then, World War II broke out, and his dreams were put on hold. After serving in the Army, Keets returned to face discrimination on the home front.

PINKNEY: He could not find a job. I mean, there were literally⁷ signs in windows that said, Jews need not apply. Ezra was born with the name Jacob Jack Ezra Katz. When he saw those signs, he changed his name to Ezra Jack Keats.

NEARY: Eventually, Keats got a job as an illustrator. At some point, he saw a series of photos of a little black boy in Life magazine. He held on to those pictures for 20 years.

PINKNEY: And then he gets an invitation to create his own children's book. And he said, this is the boy I'm going to use as the star of my own children's book.

NEARY: In her book, "A Poem For Peter," Pinkney describes Keats' life and the creation of Peter in verse.

PINKNEY: (Reading) Brown sugar boy in a blanket of white, bright as the day you came onto the page, from the hand of a man whose life and times and hardships and heritage and heroes and heart and soul led him to you.

NEARY: "The Snowy Day," with its beautiful illustrations, was an instant hit. But Deborah Pope, executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, says there was also a backlash against Keats because he was white.

DEBORAH POPE: Ezra was criticized for presuming to be able to write about a black child.

NEARY: Pope says Keats offered a simple explanation for creating a book with a black child as its central character.

POPE: I put these characters into my books because they're there. They've always been there, but we've never seen them. We need to see them.

NEARY: And, Pope says, children of color still need to see themselves in books and other media, which is why she helped produce the animated version of "The Snowy Day."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SNOWY DAY")

LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (As narrator) Peter picks up a handful of snow - and another and still another. He packs it round and firm and puts the snowball in his pocket for later.

REGINA KING: (As Mom) Peter.

NEARY: Many years ago, Ezra Jack Keats saw a need and filled it. That need, says Andrea Davis Pinkney, still exists.

PINKNEY: We need more Peters. We need more stories that are universal in nature and that appeal to all children just because of their beauty and whimsy⁸ and fun and discovery.

NEARY: Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

3 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

4 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 whimsy   

n.古怪，异想天开

参考例句：

• They are like oracular messages,but witty-jaunty at times-and sometimes trembling on the edge of whimsy.它们都像神谕，但很机智，有时极其轻快，有时又濒于怪诞。
• He had a whimsy about flying to the moon.他有个想飞上月球的怪念头。