Reviews

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma

mdettmann's review against another edition

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4.0

"It's a sighted, hearing classroom, in a sighted, hearing school, in a sighted, hearing society. They designed this environment for people who can see and hear. In this environment, I'm disabled. They place the burden on me to step out of my world and reach into theirs"

Haben’s memoir is written very straight-forward and flows nicely. There’s always a profound wrap-up at the end of each chapter and while some sat with me more than others, I liked the organization of her life story. It reminds me of when I was reading A Face for Picasso. I learned a lot! I loved the later chapters after she got her law degree and the details of the Scribd case that I had never heard of! I’d definitely recommend having this in your high school libraries and for readers wanting to be inspired by a really cool and successful advocate.

evawondergem's review against another edition

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funny informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

violetturtledove's review against another edition

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hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

A great, informative read told in a friendly style with good humour throughout. It's really made me think about the issues it covers and helped me understand the world a little more.

tinacardone's review

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective

5.0

metalmama's review

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adventurous funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

livrad's review

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3.0

There were a lot of interesting bits in this memoir of Harvard’s first deaf/blind graduate, but very little of the story surrounds Harvard or Haben’s law career. The organization and weighting of the storytelling could have benefitted from some tweaking. There were many sections where it wasn’t clear why a story was being included in the memoir or what the point of it was. Reading it felt disjointed, and in general, the story read like a “young reader’s” junior version of a memoir. With as much of a focus as there was on her childhood and adolescence, there was a juvenility to the book that made me surprised it isn’t categorized as a YA or even middle grades memoir.

raemow's review

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adventurous challenging funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

emmachristine27's review

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4.0

4 Stars

I read this book for class and I really enjoyed it. I think that gave me a great refresher on the perspective of people who have disabilities and the importance of advocating for continued accessibility in our modern world.

krithiques's review against another edition

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Had to return this book to the library💔 waiting for my hold to come in again so i can finish it!

candelibri's review

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informative fast-paced

3.0