As a child, I was in awe of Helen Keller. She overcame so many difficulties, but kept persevering, learning and reaching out to people. At my school, children are still drawn to her story. I love sharing Doreen Rappaport and Matt Tavares's stirring biography with them.
Doreen Rappaport gives readers a clear sense of Helen's whole life, from the illness that left her blind and deaf as a child, to her years with Annie, and then her accomplishments as an adult.Helen's Big World:
The Life of Helen Keller
by Doreen Rappaport
illustrated by Matt Tavares
Disney / Hyperion, 2012
ages 5 - 9
available at your local library and on Amazon
Throughout it, Rappaport highlights Keller's own inspiring words in large, bold print. Young readers will be inspired not only by how Helen overcame her own disabilities, but how she used her voice to speak up for justice and equality for all.
From the Author’s Note:
I remember when I went to the theater and saw the play The Miracle Worker, which focuses on the early relationship between Helen and her teacher Annie Sullivan. The most electrifying moment in the play, and in the biographies of Helen Keller, was always the moment at the water pump, when Helen connected the water flowing over her hand with the word that Annie was spelling into her other hand.Kids will enjoy checking out the American Foundation for the Blind's Helen Keller Kids' Museum Online, full of pictures and short paragraphs of information.
That moment reminds us of how we learn, and the power of learning; the more we understand things, the larger our world becomes. Annie Sullivan opened up Helen Keller’s limited, dark, silent world; it grew and grew until it truly became a big world.
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| AFB's Helen Keller Kids Museum Online |
©2014 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books
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