Helen+Keller

Helen Keller Written by: Margaret Davidson Illustrated by: Wendy Watson Book Reviewer: Samantha Contreras



Summary: Helen Keller was born blind and deaf. She must learn how to navigate in this world with her unfortunate disabilities. When Helen was young, she was extremely fussy and through many tantrums, after all, she lived in a world of silence and she was unable to speak. Helen did not understand anything, she had to rely on her sense of smell and touch to connected things together. One say Helen met Anne Sullivan and her life was never the same. Anne had to teach Helen from scratch. Helen learned to use her manners, how to read braille, how to write, and eventually Helen even went off to college and graduated with high honors. Helen wouldn't stop there, after her great accomplishments, Helen was ready to learn to speak.

Book Review: I read this book in fifth grade as a punishment to not cleaning my bedroom, and boy, was I grateful to have done so. This book is so inspiring and a good tool to teach younger students empathy. It is important to probe your students into putting themselves in Helen Keller's shoes. There is also a braille alphabet inscribed on the back of the book, which makes the reading more interactive. The fact that this story is true, adds an entirely new dynamic to conversations about this book.

Literary Element: The main literary element in this story is character development. We are first introduced to Helen Keller as a scared little girl. As the plot unfolds, so does Helen and her abilities. She is learning something new every day. There is a chapter in the book called "I'm Not Dumb Now." Helen once felt she was dumb, because she did not have the skills that other people had. Now that Helen acquired the skills to read and write, she felt she had a chance just like everyone else. We then begin Helen's journey on learning to speak. Which is the most difficult for Helen. The reader is walking through Helen's life one page at a time and growing with this character the further along the reader gets.

 Author Bio: Margaret Davidson was born in 1936. She wrote many real biographies on people's lives. Such as; Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, and Alexander Graham Bell.

Bibliographic Information:
 * ISBN-13: 9780590424042
 * Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
 * Publication date: 4/28/1989\
 * Pages: 96
 * Sales rank: 119,018
 * Age range: 7 - 10 Years
 * Grade Level: 2 - 5

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">Related links: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/helen-keller-davidson/1014312277?ean=9780590424042 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8