winter morning peter woke up and looked out the window snow had fallen during the night it covered everything as far as he could see after breakfast he put on his no suit and ran outside the snow was piled up very high along the street to make a path for walking crunch crunch crunch his feet sank into the snow he walked with his toes pointed out like this he walked with his toes pointing in like that then he dragged his feet slowly to make tracks and he found something sticking out of the snow that made a new track it was as dick as a stick that was just right for smacking as snow covered tree down fell the snow pole up on top of peter's head he thought it would be to join the big boys in their snowball fight but he knew he wasn't old enough not jet so he made a smiling snowman and he made angels he pretended he was a mountain climber he climbed up a great big tall he'd been mounted of snow and slid oh all the way down he picked up a handful of snow and another and still another he packed it round and firm and put this snowball in his pocket for tomorrow then he w warm house he told his mother all about his adventures while she took off his wet socks and then he thought and thought and thought about them before he got into bed he looked in his pocket his pocket was empty the snow ball wasn't there he felt very sad while he slumped he dreamed that the sun had melted all the snow away but when he woke up his dream was gone the snow  still everywhere you know was bawling after breakfast he called to his friend from across the hall and they went out together into the deep deep snow the u s postal service showcased as read jack keats most beloved story the snowy day written illustrated by the celebrated children's author it is one of the th century's most prominent stories centered on an african american child were to begin first of all we are very much about providing access and information to everybody but children of course right at the top of our list and the library is often crowded with children learning to read and we want them to read books in which they can see themselves as dana said this is what she saw when she looked at this book him in a way that was really precious because as we know today is efforts are critical and are informing that the conversations that were happening in libraries and across the country and  so this day is extremely important to us and we always love stamps that commemorate authors but i would i wouldn't be telling the truth a truth if i didn't say that this one was particularly important to the brooklyn public library where as reject keats was born and raised so we hope that our shelves continue to be filled with books that celebrate the diversity in brooklyn and we also hope that you continue to come back and use the library often and remain  has been in my family is a book my mom bred to be and then when my boys were young my wife and i read it and then we would pass it on when they grow older so that's why we did all these books especially books that african american characters and their so we were passing on to other for we members with the kids grew older they would pass it on to other family members so it circulated throughout every just used to seeing these books in our house and on our shelves and on our coffee tables and books books were a big part of my and because of the story day and and the books that inspired i saw images that looked like me on our trips to d c public library and we had a thing in d c in our neighborhood called the book and bill that would come in and drive up and you know we do the date it was coming on saturdays and with time and i would go in and we had all these books and i was something my mother helped arrange so she's been a big advocate of libraries so this is special for me all the way around and hopefully she's watching on facebook live today years and in the area you know we have a thing called the dewey decimal system catalog cards and then this little thing with images on they call microfiche you know  to be peter foreman a snowball that he thinks is going to stay you know perfectly round and solid when he brings it in the house and then you see i'm sliding down a mountain the snow d when he realizes he's too so young to play with older neighborhood kids invite our speakers are the guests to come up today to help us dedicate the stamps that celebrate peter snowy day venture and has been a powerful powerful image your children all around the world for more than fifty years the life so many of us in this room was that kid for whom the snowy day changed everything because not only did i see myself i saw exuberance i saw that feeling of joy that so many of us experience on a snowy day and it was keats who really understood no matter what color you are that we can all experience kind of that wide open adventure and again this is the perfect venue for this because as a parent and as a reader and as a brooklynite there and many days where i have spent my time where my heart and soul and mind have just been filled in this library so i'd love to come it is my home away from home and it is one of the places where i got the inspiration and the help and the research for writing a poem for peter the picture of a biography about as your jackets which was published by faking it's nice to see my viking publisher and editor here this morning it's just a pleasure so for this very special occasion and only for today i have written a special message a letter to my friend peter do you peter do you see what you've done you stamp your way into our hearts peter peter you st came onto the scene we rejoiced now dear peter you've done it again sent us to a place that only the most the right souls can reach and images of you there you will be proudly greeting us on the upper left of on followups that spring from that mail carriers actual carry through rain down a snow hill stuffing a tiny white ball into your grid on bread pocket dear peter imagine the faces that were lined up with thank the library of congress includes the snowy day in a list of eighty eight dollars books that have shaped america i agree not only is this estimation justified but i cannot think of another picture book that has had such a large positive impact on how we as individuals think of ourselves as part of a culture that includes others in this book and those that followed as are featured a diverse group of children in an urban working class neighborhood which actually served as the basis for sesame street also a breakthrough comment on our culture to this day as use books are considered the gold standard for what diverse put picture books for children should be we still need to see our diverse population reflected more in every aspect of our public life and i am proud that the u s p s the united states postal service has chosen peter in his red snowsuit to represent every child in their winter stands for but he would have been especially roll with the stamps when he was a boy and already determined to become an artist despite his parents there ie strong discouragement because they thought he would starve certainly star as you said himself a goal to create a stamp so beautiful and so perfect that it would pass as real and he spent hours hours laboring on every single detail including cutting the small serrated images that are the a comic symbol of of stamps from around the world then he sauntered down to the school yard and he showed the stamp to a kid who was an avid stamp collector and the young stamp collector belforest he coveted this unique stamp and offered a few of his most precious specimens is as it would only trade with him ezra very reluctantly agreed and then he flew home in a panic at what he had done and a few sure enough a few hours later the stamp collector was pounding at his front door i agree with back to my father as remez when they were in junior high school and they remained best friends until ezra died these boys were impoverished children of immigrants and neither felt he had a chance any chance at a bright future but had to be a world famous children's book author and illustrator and my father is a world famous scientist whose work is among other things the basis for the more efficient solar cells and panels that are now being developed the lives of these two young boys are a testament to what children can overcome despite great odds if they are only the significance of this moment is further enhanced by our being in the central library of the brooklyn public library as received almost all of his encouraged for his art from his teachers from his librarians and from countless instrumental in spearheading our joint programs and in making every branch a community center offering information support guidance and entertainment to all the neighborhoods  something right and so we are proud to present linda with the new york state writers hall of fame plaque here it is there little bit more personally with a museum quality print of a poster that was created by israel in which the character of peter can be seen in his pajamas imagining himself as an astronaut an explorer and a scholar some of the things we hope the children visiting this library all the children visiting this library feel free to become it's amazing it's is so apropos and given the things that are gone through now is a great reminder that we are all beautiful and we all have a place in this world and so i think this is a great honor for everyone but i really want to thank relations and it helped a lot of people to feel good about themselves i mean because when i st read this book in the s you didn't find picture books with children of color on the cover as long a black child and so it really opened up that door i mean it ironic that a jewish man would open a door for african american writers illustrators but he did a very important task to change the world to revolutionize the world was the st of all i just want to say that we are so proud to be a part of the celebration because this book in particular was written by an author who grew up in was raised in brooklyn and who understood the importance of all children seeing themselves in literature and so that we should be celebrating this kind as are jackie it's understood that all children need to see themselves in books and he was the st one to feature an african american child on the cover of a mainstream look and that was groundbreaking at the time that it happen and we would hope that many folks followed it's taken a while but as are jackie's the snowy day continues to be the stellar example of books that said yes let's put a child of color on the front of that book and now we have a stamp to reinforce and celebrate that yes i wrote a poem that was really an extension of a book that i've written about the life and times of as or jackie the title of that book is a poem for peter and i wrote an ode today a love letter to peter that iconic character  his red snowsuit just saying that you peter will be bringing greetings of a tight group of greetings of love tidings of joy to so many especially this holiday season and i think the stamp is beautiful i am country and tell me how do you feel that the snowy day transformed race relations service or will it transformed a sense of what it means to be part of a whole culture the reason this book was groundbreaking was because it was in brace by the culture as a whole it was not considered in nisha book it was considered a book for children in the broadest sense all children and that in and of itself was a change in it was a sea change it was a sense of a different way of looking through the window took you know decades but i believe that the children who grew up reading this book and then reading more and more books with diverse characters in it did change then the way they grew up to t it was it was a very natural thing it was into it wasn't a genuine effort it was it came out of years of illustrating other people's book often they haven't grown up and made into a fight with other children as who attended fight with all children and he's decided that if he ever had the opportunity to write a book and illustrated at the same time or illustrate and write that he would send it on oh an african american child because they're there simply because there's you and there's a mystery about this child from life magazine a photograph of it i think what you're talking about is the series of photographs as you're cut out of life magazine in one thousand nine hundred and forty over twenty years before he wrote the snowy day there was this sequence of pictures of a little or four year old boy who was getting a vaccine and he approached the camera and the event very innocently and happily he was being paid attention to and then he got the vaccine and he looked at the camera heard and a many ways why did you do that to me he did i do and so there's this childlike evolution of a feeling that you're seeing in these serious and i think that extra resonated with the transition of the emotions that this child was sharing with us and this was not in the den to fight child never found out who this child was but it was someone in georgia who was three or four in one thousand nine hundred and forty and we don't know we've tried quite a bit to find out who he was or is and it's been possible to tra to feel that then he felt himself a discrimination being jewish as right there was no question there was no question he couldn't get a job and he changed his name and he got jobs and the change of name was preceded by experiment to see if i send in my resume with my original me when i get an interview versus what why i get an interview if i he'd be thrilled it's a wonderful wonderful thing and i think he would be as or was very modest and part of his thrill would also be amazement amaz