Helen Keller
Title: Helen Keller
Author: Leslie Garrett
Publisher: DK Publishing
Place and year of publication: New York, 2004
Number of pages: 127
Where I found the book: school’s library
Story:
This book is inspired by Helen Keller. This book is about her life, her struggles, and her achievements. Helen had a brain fever she was only one and half year old. After some days, her fever broke. No one knew what the fever had done to Helen. One day, when sunlight was hitting Helen’s face, she didn’t turn away from the bright light. She wasn’t blinking her eyes, Helen was blind. Few days later, her mom realized that she was deaf too.
Helen got to know members of her family: her parents, her step brothers, James and William; her aunt Ev and the servants. She used her simple signs to communicate with her family. For example, for bread, she would imitate cutting and putting butter on slices. For ice cream, she would shiver. Helen had developed 60 signs.
One of Helen’s favorite pranks was locking people in rooms. One day, she locked her mother in the pantry, after 3 hours she was found and released. The Keller’s endured Helen’s pranks until her behavior and her pranks became danger to Mildred (her new baby sister). One day, Helen saw Mildred sleeping in her favorite doll’s cradle. She turned the cradle over. Luckily, Mildred wasn’t hurt.
Helen’s parents started to find someone who can help Helen. After some time, a teacher was found. The teacher’s name was Anne Mansfield Suvillian. Anne had a terrible childhood herself. When she was 3 years old, she rubbed her eye because it itched. She had an infection. Then they took her to a doctor told them the problem was Trachoma. He gave them some medicine to put in Annie’s eye but it didn’t help either. Later Annie’s mother developed Tuberculosis. Her mother was expecting a baby. He was born with a disfigured hip because of Tuberculosis. Another baby was born named Mary. Few days later, Annie’s mother died. Annie was sent to a poor house along with Jimmy, her brother. Later, Jimmy died too. Annie had no one left. Then she graduated from an institution for blind. By the early 1887, Annie felt ready to educate Helen Keller.
The first thing she asked when they reached the house she asked “where’s Helen?” Helen’s dad pointed at the front porch. Annie was shocked t her arms to see Helen’s appearance. Helen felt some footsteps coming towards her. Helen thought it was her mother and she hugged her. Then Helen twisted her arms to get free and ran away from her. Curious, she came back and touched her face, her clothes etc.
Helen came to Annie’s room and Annie gave her a doll which was a present from the Perkins students. Helen loved that doll. Annie took Helen’s hand and carefully spelled D-O-L-L in Helen’s palm, she repeated it over and over again. Helen began to shape the letters herself. Annie took the doll from her and she wanted Helen to spell doll into Annie’s hand and she would return it. Helen had another idea. She launched her fist at Annie, she knew that Helen might do that and she was ready. She grabbed Helen’s arm and held it tightly. Helen ran out of the room. But curiosity brought her back. Helen thought of the spelling on the palm as game and they played it daily. One day, Annie took Helen to a water pump. First she made Helen touch the water and then she wrote W-A-T-E-R on her hand. Helen was confused. She did it again and again. Finally, Helen understood that she was trying to tell her that each word is actually a thing in real life. She asked Annie to spell what everything was in her palm every day.
When Helen grew up, she wanted to go to Radcliffe, which is the sister, school of Harvard. Cambridge school was made especially for girls who wanted to attend Radcliffe. In October 1896, she started attending Cambridge. It was pretty hard for Helen and she was studying history, German, Latin, and literature. Annie was not allowed to be with her during exemptions, instead her teacher spelled the questions into her palm. Finally after all the hard work, she got an acceptance letter from Radcliffe. Helen was the first handicap to attend the university. She arrived in fall of 1900. In 1903, Helen published her first book named The Story of My Life. In June 1904, Helen graduated from Radcliffe.
Helen wanted to become a socialist. She wanted to fight against the reason why most people become blind: Poverty. In 1909 she became a member in a socialist party. Then she started a lecture tour. In 1913, she was ready to take the stage. Helen was so terrified that she said that she would always remember this day even till her last breath.
Later she took some break from the socialist work and wrote some books which were: My religion and Midstream: My Afterlife. Helen was really exhausted from all the writing. My religion was inspired by the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
On October 20, 1936, Annie died. Helen lost the person who she cared and loved the most. Helen’s friends were worried that now Annie gone she would fall apart. Annie’s remains were placed in National Cathedral in Washington. She was the first woman to receive such an honor.
In 1964,Helen received a presidential medal of freedom. After an year later, she was elected to the Women’s Hall of Fame at New York World’s Fair. In late May she had a heart attack and on June 1st she died quietly. She had lived a wonderful life and she knew when she died she would be able to see and hear.
Christian perspective:
I think this book is written in Christian perspective. As a socialist, she wanted to help people who were in need and spread God’s love and show them that He cares and loves them a lot. She had a hope in her that she wanted to help to stop the reasons people became blind after birth. She went to wounded men and gave them courage and told them that life isn’t over.
My thoughts
I really loved this book. The things I loved the most about the book were to see her courage and how she stood up for her rights. She achieved most of her goals even though she was disabled like graduating from Radcliffe, and she was also known as the most educated deaf and blind person in the world. I decided to read this book because a friend recommended this book to me. I would recommend this book to a person who enjoys reading about people’s lives and the amazing things they have done.
