Sat 11/28-Mon 1/4/21
Those indoor Christmas parties, markets and holiday festivals just aren’t going to be happening this year — if people are smart anyway. But the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library and the Cedar Lee District in Cleveland Heights have come up with a way to inject a little holiday magic into the season for kids — outdoors and on your own timetable.
It revolves around the classic children’s picture book The Snowy Day, which in 1963 became the first book featuring an African-American central character to win the Caldecott Medal, awarded each year since 1938 for best children’s picture book. Because it’s aimed at very young children, the “plot” is simple: a little boy wakes up, discovers it has snowed overnight, and goes outside to play in the snow. Still, the boy, which depicts its character like any other child, became controversial in part because its Brooklyn-born author Ezra Jack Keats, was white and Jewish.
The book will be featured in a “story walk,” an event which features pages of the book in the windows of Lee Road’s businesses, which families can follow to read the story in order. Participating businesses include S’Wonderful Gifts, Dewey’s Pizza, CLE Urban Winery, Heights Arts, The Wine Spot, Voodoo Brewery, Atma Center, and the Lee Road branch of Heights Libraries. Stop in to do some gift shopping or pick up some food/drink to go.
The installation launches November 28 on Small Business Saturday and will remain in the windows through January 4.