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God Is in the Mountain
Keats explores the universality of spiritual thought in this distinguished picture book, first published in 1966. Quoting simple phrases from disparate religious traditions, he threads together ancient and modern ideas of spirituality, celebrating both their diversity and commonality. Full color.
- GenresPicture BooksPoetry
44 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Ezra Jack Keats
125 books379 followersEzra Jack Keats was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He won the 1963 Caldecott Medal for illustrating The Snowy Day, which he also wrote. Many of Ezra’s stories are about a group of friends growing up in the city. The neighborhood they live in looks like the streets where Ezra grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
He was born Jacob Ezra Katz, the third child of Polish-Jewish immigrants Benjamin Katz and Augusta Podgainy. The family was very poor. Jack, as he was known, was artistic from an early age, and joyfully made pictures out of whatever scraps of wood, cloth and paper that he could collect. Benjamin Katz, who worked as a waiter, tried to discourage his son, insisting that artists lived terrible, impoverished lives. Nevertheless, he sometimes brought home tubes of paint, claiming, "A starving artist swapped this for a bowl of soup."
With little encouragement at home, Keats sought validation for his skills at school and learned about art at the public library. He received a medal for drawing on graduating from Junior High School 149. Although unimpressive-looking, the medal meant a great deal to him, and he kept it his entire life. Keats attended Thomas Jefferson High School, where he won a national contest run by Scholastic for an oil painting depicting hobos warming themselves around a fire. At his graduation, in January 1935, he was to receive the senior class medal for excellence in art. Two days before the ceremony, Benjamin Katz died in the street of a heart attack. When Keats identified his father's body, he later wrote, "I found myself staring deep into his secret feelings. There in his wallet were worn and tattered newspaper clippings of the notices of the awards I had won. My silent admirer and supplier, he had been torn between his dread of my leading a life of hardship and his real pride in my work."
His father's death curtailed his dream of attending art school. For the remainder of the Great Depression until he was drafted for military service in World War II, Keats took art classes when he could and worked at a number of jobs, most notably as a mural painter under the New Deal program the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and as a comic book illustrator. At Fawcett Publications, he illustrated backgrounds for the Captain Marvel comic strip. He spent his military service (1943-45) designing camouflage patterns for the U.S. Army Air Force. In 1947, he petitioned to legally change his name to Ezra Jack Keats, in reaction to the anti-Semitic prejudice of the time.
Keats spent most of 1949 painting and studying in Paris, realizing a long-deferred dream of working as an artist. After returning to New York, he focused on earning a living as a commercial artist, undoubtedly influenced by his father's anxieties. His illustrations began to appear in Reader's Digest, The New York Times Book Review, Collier's and Playboy, and on the jackets of popular books. His work was displayed in Fifth Avenue store windows, and the Associated American Artists Gallery, in New York City, gave him exhibitions in 1950 and 1954.
In his unpublished autobiography, Keats wrote, "I didn't even ask to get into children's books." In fact, he was asked to do so by Elizabeth Riley of Crowell, which brought out his first children's title, Jubilant for Sure, written by Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, in 1954. To prepare for the assignment, Keats went to rural Kentucky, where the story takes place, to sketch. Many children's books followed, including the Danny Dunn adventure series, by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin, and an ethnographic series by Tillie S. Pine and Joseph Levine, beginning with The Indians Knew. All told, Keats illustrated nearly 70 books written by other authors.
In 1983, Keats died at the age of 67 following a heart attack. His last projects included designing the sets for a musical version of his book The Trip (which would later become the stage production Captain Louie), designing
He was born Jacob Ezra Katz, the third child of Polish-Jewish immigrants Benjamin Katz and Augusta Podgainy. The family was very poor. Jack, as he was known, was artistic from an early age, and joyfully made pictures out of whatever scraps of wood, cloth and paper that he could collect. Benjamin Katz, who worked as a waiter, tried to discourage his son, insisting that artists lived terrible, impoverished lives. Nevertheless, he sometimes brought home tubes of paint, claiming, "A starving artist swapped this for a bowl of soup."
With little encouragement at home, Keats sought validation for his skills at school and learned about art at the public library. He received a medal for drawing on graduating from Junior High School 149. Although unimpressive-looking, the medal meant a great deal to him, and he kept it his entire life. Keats attended Thomas Jefferson High School, where he won a national contest run by Scholastic for an oil painting depicting hobos warming themselves around a fire. At his graduation, in January 1935, he was to receive the senior class medal for excellence in art. Two days before the ceremony, Benjamin Katz died in the street of a heart attack. When Keats identified his father's body, he later wrote, "I found myself staring deep into his secret feelings. There in his wallet were worn and tattered newspaper clippings of the notices of the awards I had won. My silent admirer and supplier, he had been torn between his dread of my leading a life of hardship and his real pride in my work."
His father's death curtailed his dream of attending art school. For the remainder of the Great Depression until he was drafted for military service in World War II, Keats took art classes when he could and worked at a number of jobs, most notably as a mural painter under the New Deal program the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and as a comic book illustrator. At Fawcett Publications, he illustrated backgrounds for the Captain Marvel comic strip. He spent his military service (1943-45) designing camouflage patterns for the U.S. Army Air Force. In 1947, he petitioned to legally change his name to Ezra Jack Keats, in reaction to the anti-Semitic prejudice of the time.
Keats spent most of 1949 painting and studying in Paris, realizing a long-deferred dream of working as an artist. After returning to New York, he focused on earning a living as a commercial artist, undoubtedly influenced by his father's anxieties. His illustrations began to appear in Reader's Digest, The New York Times Book Review, Collier's and Playboy, and on the jackets of popular books. His work was displayed in Fifth Avenue store windows, and the Associated American Artists Gallery, in New York City, gave him exhibitions in 1950 and 1954.
In his unpublished autobiography, Keats wrote, "I didn't even ask to get into children's books." In fact, he was asked to do so by Elizabeth Riley of Crowell, which brought out his first children's title, Jubilant for Sure, written by Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, in 1954. To prepare for the assignment, Keats went to rural Kentucky, where the story takes place, to sketch. Many children's books followed, including the Danny Dunn adventure series, by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin, and an ethnographic series by Tillie S. Pine and Joseph Levine, beginning with The Indians Knew. All told, Keats illustrated nearly 70 books written by other authors.
In 1983, Keats died at the age of 67 following a heart attack. His last projects included designing the sets for a musical version of his book The Trip (which would later become the stage production Captain Louie), designing
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 20, 2018
Wonderful illustrations and beautiful design. The text is a hodge-podge of spiritual quotes drawn from a variety of religions/other sources and seems to be presented as some kind of wisdom of diversity. Because there is no underlying foundation or direction, it ends up a bit too much like a catalog of those inspirational posters that decorate offices.
November 7, 2022
This book is really lovely. It is a collection of quotes from different spiritual texts from around the world. It shows a commonality among them that basically says you can see God all around you - in the heavens, on the earth, in nature. The illustrations were simple and added a lot to the words. It's just beautiful.
#SetOnAtLeastTwoContinents
#SetOnAtLeastTwoContinents
December 18, 2023
This is a beautiful poem!!!!
“Every divine word has come into existence through the heart’s thought and the tongue’s command.”
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
“Talking with one another is loving one another.”
“God is in the water, God is in the dry land, God is in the heart, God is in the forest, God is in the mountain, God is in the cave.”
“Every divine word has come into existence through the heart’s thought and the tongue’s command.”
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
“Talking with one another is loving one another.”
“God is in the water, God is in the dry land, God is in the heart, God is in the forest, God is in the mountain, God is in the cave.”
May 13, 2017
Powerfully chosen expressions about the nature of the divine from across many spiritual traditions.
August 5, 2018
Essentially a book of quotes, but with Keats' illustrations, still a good read.
January 11, 2020
Another Mutti loves, Leo is perplexed book to reread [again and again!]
January 11, 2023
Not perfect, some of the attributions could be more specific. BUT SO VERY BEAUTIFUL. wow.
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March 4, 2024Educates students on different religions and and the diversities of them.
February 19, 2025
Love the artwork; appreciate the idea to gather wisdom sayings from many traditions.
September 10, 2015
In bringing together brief lines from different religious groups' holy books, Keats tries to bring together a singular spiritual perspective in his 1966 picture book. He establishes at the beginning of this brief picture book that "This is a collection of voices and intimations. They speak to us from different times and different places. What they have in common is the awareness of dimension without which life is indeed meaningless." While I appreciate the multicultural approach in this book, the illustrations are not very engaging, as they are sketched in dull colors and with little visual dynamism.
April 1, 2017
This fits Keats well. His books feature kids from different backgrounds coming together to live their lives. Here he weaves together quotes from different religions to show some differences, but in the end many similarities. It is quiet and peaceful. It's a very nice book.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews