Ezra Jack Keats - Honors and Memorials

Honors and Memorials

Among the many honors Keats received for his 20-year contribution to children’s literature, here is a small selection:

• The Snowy Day was awarded the Caldecott Medal and named one of the 150 most influential books of the 20th century by the New York Public Library.
• Keats was the first artist invited to design greeting cards for UNICEF.
• A skating rink in Kiyose, Japan, was named after him, in honor of his book Skates.
• Keats was a member of the White House Forum on Child Development and the Mass Media and appeared on the celebrated PBS show “Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood” several times; “Sesame Street” featured his book Peter's Chair, read aloud by First Lady Barbara Bush.
• He was awarded The University of Southern Mississippi Silver Medallion in 1980 during the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival as outstanding childre'’s book author-illustrator.
• The city of Portland, Oregon, honored him with a parade, as did his readers in Tokyo, Japan.
• Keats' works have been translated into some 20 languages, including Japanese, French, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, German, Swedish, Thai, Chinese, and Korean.
• The Imagination Playground was set up by the Prospect Park Alliance in Brooklyn, New York, based on the characters from Keats' books. The centerpiece is a much visited bronze statue of Peter with his dog Willie, where a story hour takes place weekly in the summer.
• P.S. 253 in Brooklyn was renamed the Ezra Jack Keats International School.