Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson

 

Summary (from the publisher): The bestselling biography of Helen Keller and how, with the commitment and lifelong friendship of Anne Sullivan, she learned to talk, read, and eventually graduate from college with honors.

Review: This is a young adult biography that covers the remarkable life of Helen Keller who was born in 1880 and around eighteen months old became completely blind and deaf after a severe fever and illness. For the first few years, her family had no way to communicate with her other than some basic, rudimentary signs that Helen would use of her own devising. However, her life radically changed when a teacher from a blind and deaf institute was sent to work with her. After working with Helen for some time, she was able to make Helen understand that the shapes she was making in Helen's palms were symbols for things in her world. Eventually, Helen also learned the alphabet, learned to read, and later went on to college and then lectured around the country and was well known for being a champion of the deaf and blind. Through it all, her teacher accompanied her and acted as her interpreter and guide. 

This was a great re-read with my daughters. I distinctly remember really enjoying this biography when I was in elementary school and trying to imagine what life would have been like for Helen, especially before she had a way to communicate with the rest of the world. I think this book did a great job of covering the highlights of Helen's life in a brief and relatively easy to understand form for young readers. 

I do wish a few more elements to Helen's story had been more fleshed out. For instance, almost nothing about Anne Sullivan is shared, despite her being such a pivotal force in Helen's life. We only know she has eye troubles herself, comes from the institute to serve as a teacher, and stayed with Helen until her death. Rereading this as an adult, I am astounded by her dedication and commitment to her student. She made Helen her life's work and sacrificed whatever ambitions or plans she might have had to stay with Helen and go wherever she went. She should have received a college diploma right along Helen for her dedication to assisting Helen through every aspect of her education and classes! 

While most of this was eloquently written and easy for young readers to follow, there were a few sections were a little difficult to understand the way they were written. Most notably, the story about Helen being quite alone up in a tree during a storm was really bizarre. I was confused about what exactly happened - did Anne forget her? Fail to come back promptly? Was the point that Helen was more independent but clearly could never be fully on her own? I didn't understand what the takeaway was supposed to be the way it was written. 

Overall, a fascinating young adult biography of a well-known historical figure. Once of the first champions for the disabled, Helen showed the world how much she was still capable of, and I think her story remains very relevant to this day. 

Stars: 3.5