Can Libraries Change Lives?

I was moved to watery eyes today when I read this bit of publishing and library history about March 15, 1963.

The Snowy Day
by Ezra Jack Keats

It’s a little bit of library history where an ALA award quietly rippled through society. It’s a story of small actions having big consequences. And it’s an inspiring story of someone following their dream.

“By creating a successful book with a Black protagonist, Ezra Jack Keats encouraged others to publish multicultural books. Both he and the brave Newbery-Caldecott committee of 1963 changed the contents of children’s books forever. … After the book won the Caldecott Medal in 1963, it was purchased for library collections throughout the country, and for a period of years The Snowy Day was often the only book to show the face of a person of color in many public and school libraries. Hence it had a profound influence on thousands of children who for the first time could see themselves in a book.”

All in all, it’s worth a few minutes to read.

Don’t ever underrate the power of one . . . of just a single book, a single author, a single illustrator, a single award, or a single librarian’s choice.

Library magic all the way!

Stephen