This was the child who would be the hero of my book. The book featuring Peter, The Snowy Day , received the prestigious Caldecott Award for the most distinguished picture book for children in 1963. Peter appears in six more books growing from a small by in The Snowy Day to adolescence in Pet Show . In the books that Keats wrote and illustrated, he used his special artistic techniques to portray his subjects in a unique manner. One of these was his blending of gouache with collage.
Gouache is an opaque watercolor mixed with a gum that produces an oil-like glaze.
The characters in Keats books come from the community around him. Many of his stories illustrate family life and the simple pleasures that a child has in his daily routine. Children from all backgrounds can relate to a new brother or sister as told in Peter s Chair . Jennie s Hat illustrates the excitement of a child waiting for a present, and the anticipation of what the present would look like. Goggles tells the story of finding a pair of goggles, and the chase that follows the boys through the streets of a neighborhood, when the big bullies want to snatch the goggles from them.