Review Detail

Helen Keller overcame blindness and deafness to communicate in a world dominated by sight and sound. With the help of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen broke through the silence of her childhood learning to sign, speak, read lips, read braille and write. This courageous girl changed from an uncontrollable child to a woman who embarked on a lifetime of adventures inspiring people everywhere.

 

After studying at Perkins Institution for the Blind, Helen attended Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. Using a typewriter with a braille keyboard she wrote articles for Ladies Home Journal that eventually became her book The Story of My Life. After graduating from college with honor, Helen continued writing and devoted her life to helping others.

 

With Annie, Helen traveled the world lecturing and raising millions of dollars to help the blind. Her advocacy convinced many that disabled people could lead productive and meaningful lives. Her work helped improve conditions for the blind and the deaf-blind. Today, many disabled people still benefit from her efforts and an organization known as Helen Keller International combats preventable blindness and malnutrition in more than twenty countries.

 

Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures, composed of black and white photos from American Foundation for the Blind and Perkins School for the Blind, provides readers with glimpses of this American heros life. Many rarely seen photographs of Helen document her childhood. Shots capture her school and college years and her time as a vaudeville performer. The high-quality photos also chronicle her growing fame including pictures with celebrities of her time like Mark Twain, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Patty Duke who played Helen in the movie The Miracle Worker. The text includes the braille alphabet and numbers. Though Helen Keller never saw any of these photographs, this picture book is a beautiful addition to the biographies about this world-famous woman whose struggles and remarkable successes encouraged millions to believe they too could overcome obstacles.