Helen's Big World: The Life of Helen Keller

This is a biography written about the life of Helen Keller. It also includes many quotes taken directly from Helen's autobiographies. It follows Helen's story as she becomes blind as a young baby, struggles to make herself understood to family, meets and is taught by Annie Sullivan, and eventually learns to read braille and use sign language. The text is powerful to convey the frustration of Helen as she learns to communicate with her family and the world around her. It provides readers with a vivid picture of what Helen's life was like and the reasons why she needed to learn how to communicate with others. The aspect of including quotes from Helen Keller herself, was a brilliant way to enhance the story for readers to allow them to show more make a personal connection with what they were reading about Helen while hearing her words about how she felt at each point in her life.
Media: Pastels
Genre: Biography ("For the next few years, Helen learned thousands of new words and practiced speaking them with her fingers."), Autobiography ("My failures to make myself understood were followed by outbursts."). Informational as the book provides the sign language for the alphabet, real images of words written in braille, and provides readers with information about learning communication in forms other than speaking and seeing with our eyes ("Many people did not like her ideas, [but] Helen believed that words brought freedom and she would not be silenced.") show less

Illustrations in watercolor and pencils. This story is a well-written biography of Helen Keller. This is a wonderful picture book that is an informational book because it is written from a true event. I would use this to talk about Helen Keller and even have the kids try to feel braille or have them put in ear plugs or covered sunglasses to try and understand how she would've felt the world. I would love to have this in my classroom for any grade from 2nd or 3rd grade until 7th.

Perhaps there is no more inspiring or incredible story than that of Helen Keller's. Doreen Rappaport chooses to open her tale at the age of six months - when was Keller still able to see and hear. She boldly walks readers through Keller's brave struggle to learn how to communicate, which was often fraught with frustration and despair. But with unparalleled determination and the help of a devoted, progressive teacher, Keller triumphs and becomes one of the most influential voices of her time. Rappaport does not shy away from what other biographers often skim over or even skip - Keller's undeniably important role in several areas of activism. Keller was a passionate, outspoken feminist, politician, and civil rights activist (the author show more does not, however, mention the icon's active participation as a member of the Socialist Party). Matt Tavares' expressive pencil, watercolor, and gouache illustrations perfectly capture the full range of emotion these characters experienced. The book includes quotes from Keller, herself, on every page, a list of important dates, selected research sources and suggestions for further reading, and a sign language chart. Grades 2-4. show less

This biography was written beautifully. Not only did author Rappaport did a good job telling Helen Keller's story with her mentor Annie, but I loved how Rappaport included Keller's quotes after every page. One of Keller's quotes that caught my eye was "I have the advantage of a mind trained to think, and that is the difference between myself and most people, not my blindness and their sight". I think that Helen Keller is truly amazing, and her dedication to learn and help others says it all.

I really enjoyed this book because it was an autobiography that actually held my attention with writing and illustrations that engaged me. The book tells the story of Helen Keller, one many people are familiar with, however, the author uses illustrations and writing to make the familiar story more interesting. The writing was engaging by incorporating facts about Helen Keller that are relatable to children, such as how she did not like table manners. Adding subtle facts that children can relate to help engage them by being able to connect themselves to the story. The illustrations also enhance the story by helping to express the mood of the corresponding page. When something bad happened in the story, like when Helen Keller was show more diagnosed with the illness that took away her vision and hearing, the background was black, whereas when something good happened like learning how to read braille or going off to college, the background were lighter pastel colors. The big message of the story is not to let anything hold you back from succeeding in this world and this message is especially effective because the story is of someone show less

In my opinion, this is a great autobiography of Helen Keller that is child friendly and useful for all ages. I like this book for several reasons. The language is very clear and descriptive. It discusses in detail the struggles Helen Keller faced and how she overcame these challenges and became successful, thanks to Annie Sullivan. There is not an overwhelming amount of detail and difficult vocabulary on the pages; therefore, children can comprehend the story. The writing is organized in chronological order and flows nicely. I like that each page contains informational text and a direct quote from Helen Keller about her thoughts and emotions during that time in her life. An example of a quote is, “That living word awakened my soul, show more gave it light, hope, joy, and set it free.” These quotes help the reader understand how Helen felt during this learning process, which engages the reader. The illustrations are one of my favorite aspects of this book. The beautifully detailed drawings spread across the page and create vivid images of Helen Keller’s life. Each illustration looks very realistic. This nonfiction story contains accurate and clear information. The back of the book contains a list of important dates in Helen’s life, research sources, websites, further reading ideas, and the complete manual language chart. The story pushes readers to think about what it would be like if they could not see or hear and what they would do to overcome daily challenges. The big idea of the book is to learn about Helen Keller’s life and how she learned to see with the world and communicate with others despite her deaf and blindness. show less

In my opinion, this is an interesting book. It provides a brief timeline of the life of Helen Keller, placing emphasis on important events and turning points. I thought it was incredibly factual. The writing was informative and followed a very clear chronological path. The illustrations added depth to the words—I appreciated physically seeing the event that the words were describing. Additionally, I really appreciated the timeline at the end of the book. It was a fantastic way to reiterate and cement the important information that I learned while reading. While I know the story of Helen Keller, this book provided even more detail into her incredible life, and pushed me to think about how I would react if I were in Helen’s place. For show more example, Helen was adamant about getting into college, regardless of the fact that it would be a constant struggle. After reading that, I had to pause and wonder if I would be as driven and ambitious. The message of this book was how strong Helen was, how courageous it was for her to be so outspoken about her life, and how people should look to her as a source of inspiration. show less