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referencegrrrl's review against another edition
4.0
Imagine learning to dance. But you can’t hear the music.
Imagine riding horseback. But you can’t see to keep your balance and not fall off.
In her lifetime, blind and deaf Helen Keller learned to do both. She
Our story opens with a little girl drawn without features, completely in the dark. She is angry, she is scared, she is combative. This is Helen Keller and this is her world.
Enter Annie Sullivan, the woman who is hired by Helen’s parents to teach Helen to communicate. Annie grew up in an orphanage, and had vision problems of her own. She couldn’t read or write until she was 14. But she was strong and stubborn and determined to succeed.
When she got to Helen, those traits served her well. Helen’s parents – well, mostly her father – didn’t care for her teaching style. The Captain insisted that Annie’s teachings bordered on abuse, and but her mother insisted she stay.
Annie’s primary goal was to teach Helen that everything had a name. But how can she teach the word “cake” to someone who’s never seen one? How can she teach the word “doll” to someone who’s never seen one?
Meanwhile, in a series of flashbacks, we learn a little more about how Annie grew up, and how she came to be the teacher that Helen desperately needed.
But slowly, while dealing with tantrums and struggles and arguments with Helen’s parents, Annie’s methods began working.
Annie made great strides in working with Helen. So much so that when she was 11, Helen wrote a story as a birthday gift to Dr. Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. But some people thought that the story was not Helen’s idea, that perhaps she plagiarized the story from someone else. Will this undermine Annie’s work? Will it devalue Helen’s progress? And will it bring down the man and the school that fought tirelessly for them both?
Imagine riding horseback. But you can’t see to keep your balance and not fall off.
In her lifetime, blind and deaf Helen Keller learned to do both. She
Our story opens with a little girl drawn without features, completely in the dark. She is angry, she is scared, she is combative. This is Helen Keller and this is her world.
Enter Annie Sullivan, the woman who is hired by Helen’s parents to teach Helen to communicate. Annie grew up in an orphanage, and had vision problems of her own. She couldn’t read or write until she was 14. But she was strong and stubborn and determined to succeed.
When she got to Helen, those traits served her well. Helen’s parents – well, mostly her father – didn’t care for her teaching style. The Captain insisted that Annie’s teachings bordered on abuse, and but her mother insisted she stay.
Annie’s primary goal was to teach Helen that everything had a name. But how can she teach the word “cake” to someone who’s never seen one? How can she teach the word “doll” to someone who’s never seen one?
Meanwhile, in a series of flashbacks, we learn a little more about how Annie grew up, and how she came to be the teacher that Helen desperately needed.
But slowly, while dealing with tantrums and struggles and arguments with Helen’s parents, Annie’s methods began working.
Annie made great strides in working with Helen. So much so that when she was 11, Helen wrote a story as a birthday gift to Dr. Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. But some people thought that the story was not Helen’s idea, that perhaps she plagiarized the story from someone else. Will this undermine Annie’s work? Will it devalue Helen’s progress? And will it bring down the man and the school that fought tirelessly for them both?
antlersantlers's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this. It was so engrossing! I'm familiar with many of the parts of the story, but others (like Annie Sullivan's time at the Tewksbury Alshouse) were new to me. The style is also really beautiful. Most of the action takes place in beautiful full color panels, but when portraying Helen's perspective the panel is black with blockier shape and a much looser style. Overall it was very effective and I really enjoyed it.
pagesbycaroline's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
4.0
katieckb's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
A graphic novel depicting the story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. At the end of the book, there are a few pages of written text to explain some of the events more completely. One thing that I did not appreciate is the fact that the book calls Alexander Graham Bell an American scientist, when in fact, he was Scottish.
A graphic novel depicting the story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. At the end of the book, there are a few pages of written text to explain some of the events more completely. One thing that I did not appreciate is the fact that the book calls Alexander Graham Bell an American scientist, when in fact, he was Scottish.
nixieclerk's review against another edition
5.0
Well worth reading even if you are already familiar with the story. The drawings from Helen's perspective are just fascinating.
toryhallelujah's review against another edition
3.0
I learned a lot, but why does the font have to be so hard to read? (Ugh, probably so you can understand what the two of them went through.)
akmargie's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful art and a well researched story. They way the artist depicts Helen's perspective was inventive and really served the story well. Would be a good companion for school curriculum or bio book reports.
calistareads's review against another edition
4.0
A graphic telling of the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller. I really liked the pages where they interpret what it was like for Helen and how she experienced something, usually in a dark panel. It worked really well I felt.
The art was serviceable but not that great really. The story is simply a powerful story whether it's told as a book, graphic novel, or movie. Helen gives me hope in a way that no other story can. She found a way through a horrible handicap. Luckily, her parents had means, otherwise, it would have been a very different story for her.
A nice fast-paced read with good information in it. Great for all ages.
The art was serviceable but not that great really. The story is simply a powerful story whether it's told as a book, graphic novel, or movie. Helen gives me hope in a way that no other story can. She found a way through a horrible handicap. Luckily, her parents had means, otherwise, it would have been a very different story for her.
A nice fast-paced read with good information in it. Great for all ages.
emilycc's review against another edition
5.0
It's story that everyone knows: Annie Sullivan taught blind and deaf Helen Keller how to understand sign language and then how to speak. It's repeated so often that it's easy to forget what an amazing thing Sullivan and Keller did together, especially given that Sullivan herself was in her early 20s when they started working together.
This fantastic graphic novel brings all the wonder back into the story; the style of the drawings didn't appeal to me at first, but the way Lambert uses visual storytelling to convey Helen's experience is wonderful. I got chills when Annie and Helen had their first breakthrough. It's also a refreshingly unsentimental look at Sullivan's life before Keller, which was pretty horrible, and at some of the more controversial moments in Keller's early training.
Highly recommended.
This fantastic graphic novel brings all the wonder back into the story; the style of the drawings didn't appeal to me at first, but the way Lambert uses visual storytelling to convey Helen's experience is wonderful. I got chills when Annie and Helen had their first breakthrough. It's also a refreshingly unsentimental look at Sullivan's life before Keller, which was pretty horrible, and at some of the more controversial moments in Keller's early training.
Highly recommended.