  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 06/01/2012 Concentrating on the early days of Helen Keller’s transformative relationship with Annie Sullivan, this graceful picture-book biography allows its young readers to identify with the famous figure as a child close to their own age. Sections are divided by date from March 6, 1887, the day Annie arrived at the Keller’s Alabama home, charged with teaching the wildly frustrated deaf and blind girl, to July 12, 1897, when Helen laboriously wrote a letter to her mother using her newfound skills. Colón’s finely executed drawings use a calm palette of blues, golds, browns, and greens, which serve to soothingly reinforce Sullivan’s measured, patient methods. They have an old-fashioned appeal similar to Garth Williams’ illustrative work that suits the time period. Photographs of a young Helen are scattered across the endpapers, along with a judiciously chosen number of recommended books and websites that will lead readers onward. A Braille alphabet on the back cover is likewise a nice tactile touch for those fascinated by Helen’s story of overcoming adversity. - Copyright 2012 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2012 After providing a brief recap of the lives of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, Hopkinson proceeds in this picture-book biography to focus on what is perhaps the most engrossing aspect of Keller’s life for a child reader—the process by which Sullivan led her isolated student out of silence and darkness into full communication with her world. Each section begins with an excerpt from a letter from Sullivan to a friend at the Perkins Institution for the Blind: “She has tyrannized over everybody. . . . To get her to do the simplest thing . . . it was necessary to use force.” Thus she introduces the bitter battles that ensued over ink bottles and table manners. Of course, brighter days lay ahead after little Helen began to finger-spell: “Helen is learning adjectives and adverbs as easily as she learned nouns.” Hopkinson then explains how Sullivan methodically taught Helen the concept of numbers by spelling “puppy,” letting her feel the animals, spelling “puppies,” holding up a finger for each puppy counted, and then spelling the total number, “five.” The generous excerpts from Sullivan’s correspondence attest to the teacher’s growing pride in her student, and by the final entry she describes a girl who had raced from wordlessness to emergent reading and writing in just a few months. Attractive book design, with text sparingly parceled out onto ample white space and one or more large pictures in every spread, is unintimidating, and Colón’s line and watercolor artwork, though a bit on the tepid side, clearly conveys the mechanics of various methods of communication. Endpapers feature photographs of Keller and Sullivan, and brief lists for further print and online reading are included. EB - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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