Ezra Jack Keats’ book “The Snowy Day”—the beloved children’s story about a young African American boy named Peter who explores his neighborhood after the season’s first snowfall—tops the New York Public Library’s list of most checked out books of all time. Born on March 11, 1916, Keats wrote and illustrated 22 books in his lifetime, and illustrated over 85 books written by other authors. “The Snowy Day,” for which he won the #Caldecott Medal in 1963, was the first book featuring a Black protagonist to win a major children’s book award. “None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any Black kids—except for token Black people in the background. My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along,” said Keats. The child of Polish Jews who immigrated to America to escape anti-semitism in Europe, Keats grew up facing anti-semitism himself, and changed his name from “Katz” to “Keats” in 1947 so he could find work as a commercial artist. He drew i...