Independent Reading Level: Grade 3
Awards: none

This biographical story about Helen Keller is fantastic; I love how it's written in a first-person narrative style. Elementary-aged children will be able to easily understand and connect with Helen Keller, as the first few pages show how she was just an everyday, ordinary girl during the first part of her life. Then, at 19 months old, she became sick and subsequently lost her vision and hearing. The author shares her frustration and difficulty in finding ways to communicate. I especially liked the four boxed illustrations on one page that show the signals that Helen used to say "Father," "Mother," "baby sister" and "cold." The importance of Anne Sullivan as her teacher was crystal clear and the author didn't shy away from the frustration and torment Helen felt while learning to communicate, especially at that time when there were no resources for persons who were blind and deaf. I love how the "invisible lines that stretch between" people, from heart to heart. There's an interactive (raised dots) Braille alphabet and the word "Helen" in Braille in the middle of the book. Students will no doubt love to learn and practice their names and other words in Braille. After her story, the author shares Keller's quest for learning and helping others -- helping women vote, help the poor survive, help others with disabilities get the same education she had, and more. Students, especially those who love comics, will be drawn in by the white speech bubbles on each page of the story. The caricatures are overdramatized (especially the mouths) to mimic comics as well. The real-life photographs of Keller, along with a timeline from her life along the bottom of the last two pages, are powerful as well.

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, but just felt in the heart."
~Helen Keller ( )

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, but just felt in the heart."
~Helen Keller ( )

Helen Keller was born being able to hear and see but when she was 18 months old she got very sick and they thought she was going to die but she lived. The sickness caused her to be blind and deaf, she got so angry and confused. She couldn't communicate and thought no one cared about her. Her parents refused to give up on her though so they hired a teacher named Anne Sullivan who taught Helen, she learned the names of all kinds of things, Anne spelled out things in Helen's hand, she also taught her how to read braille. When she was nine she wanted to learn how t speak so Anne got help from another teacher named Sarah Fuller, Helen would feel Sarah's tongue and lips when she talked. Helen didn't stop at just English she went on to learn French and German. She became the first deaf and blind person to graduate from college. She went on to fight for social change. I think this a book every kid should read, Helen Keller's story is so inspirational and the author did a great job of retelling it. This shows kids that the sky is the limit, and whether you have a disability or not you can do anything you set your mind too. I like how where she went blind and deaf the page was black and it said "this is how I see the world" to put it in perspective for kids. There was also a couple pages with braille, one page had the whole alphabet in braille. There were also a lot of sources in the back which shows the author did his research. ( )