![]() HGO succeeds, but with qualifiers.Ĭomposer Joel Thompson and librettist Andrea Davis Pinkney proceed to puff up the story until it resembles the Hindenburg. For its 71st world premiere, Houston Grand Opera, attempts yet again to create a perennial Christmas opera to rival theater's A Christmas Carol or ballet's Nutcracker. Turning this wisp of a tale into the stuff of opera, which thrives on drama and conflict writ large, is daunting to say the least, if well-nigh impossible. And this short unpretentious little book became an overnight sensation, winning the prestigious Caldecott Medal and becoming the most checked out book in the history of the New York Public Library. It's this naturalistic, simple quality that struck everyone at the time. ![]() He's just a little kid out on his own in the big city after a grand snowfall. There's no social redeeming quality to this, nothing is made of it, no political points scored, no judgment rendered. What set Keats' kiddie book apart from all others at the time (1962) was its sense of place – a big city – and the fact that Peter was Black – the first Black protagonist in kid lit. We assume he puts on his hooded snow suit and goes out again for more adventures. When he wakes up, there's been more snow during the night. In his bath he tells his mother about the wonderful day he had. He saves a snowball in his pocket to play with next day. He longs to join the older boys having a snowball fight, but is shooed away for being too little. The most dramatic action occurs when little Peter, out in his neighborhood on his own after the first snowfall, pokes a branch laden with snow and the clump falls on his head. ![]() There's not much to the book, which is devoid of conflict and character. ![]() If it takes any longer, you're not graduating to second grade. Four, at most, if you pause to peruse Keats' folksy paper-cutout illustrations. See Jane Run.") can race through Ezra Jack Keats' children's classic The Snowy Day in less than three minutes. Any enterprising first-grader who has mastered the Dick and Jane reading primers ("See Dick Run.
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