Helen's Big World: The Life of Helen Keller (Big Words) by Doreen Rappaport

Helen's Big World: The Life of Helen Keller (Big Words) Reviews

• 
  Calista

  Helen Keller is such an inspiration to being human in my mind. I went to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad museum yesterday and that with this makes me think of truly inspiring women who do things that seem impossible. Helen shows there is no excuse to not having what you want. I have found that much of the limitations in life come from our inner voice - 'you can't do that'. If you ignore that voice and say, I can do that, much of the time we really can. Helen had a deep understanding of life. I hope I can life my life to the fullest also. I hope I stop limiting myself.
  
  This is a powerful story. I read Helen's autobiography, but I didn't know about her later life. She kept on doing amazing things in her life. She traveled the world speaking to crowds. It really is an amazing story. Doreen did a great job with this. She has quotes throughout the book of Helen's. The art is lovely and the whole thing is uplifting.
  
  The kids both found it incredible Helen could learn to read and write when she couldn't see. I think it blew their minds. It was a hit.
• 
  Mike Mullin

  Superior to almost all the longer children's biographies of Keller in that it doesn't shy away from her later life as a social activist. It never ceases to amaze how a superb writer like Rappaport can convey more of the reality of a story in 48 pages than a mediocre writer can in hundreds. The text is also enriched by dozens of quotes--giving readers a sense of Keller's own voice. Highly recommended.
• 
  Ruth Lehrer

  Obviously this author amd artist have not had a lot of experience with deaf-blind people. I took a quick read of this in the bookstore and found many glaring errors and misrepresentations of these people and their language. To start with, the cover has "Braille" which is tactile but not actually useable to a blind person. The spacing is so large and the dots so small, the product is all but unreadable. It is, as my blind friend used to call it, Braille for the sighted.
  I do not see any acknowledgements to anyone who actually uses finger spelling, or the Rochester method, as we now call it. If the author and artist had actually met some, the pictures would have depicted the position of Annie's spelling into Helen's hand in an accurate placement. I have never met someone who received letters in the way they depicted. I bet Helen hadn't either.
  Some of the information is inaccurate, probably for simplicity's sake but it gives an inaccurate picture of deaf-blind world. No mention if the Perkins School for the Blind is given, which is where Annie was trained and who offered much support to both Annie and Helen. In addition, visually, only 30 percent of English is visible on the lips. The pictures of Helen with the tips of her fingers on Annie's lips are depicting an impossible feat. "Tadoma" users use both hands, both on the mouth and the throat. It is a particularly different experience of communication for the speaker.
  It was nice that a children's book mentions Helen Keller's involvement in the political issues of the time such as women's suffrage and unions. The rest of the book is an overly romanticized depiction, consistent with the author's misunderstanding of this important person and the context from which she came.
• 
  Marcia

  A big, gorgeous, inspirational picture book about Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. Like Martin's Big Words, the format includes inspirational quotes and key moments in Keller's life. A lovely introduction that will leave young readers wanting to learn more.
  
• 
  Rebecca Wenzler

  Excelling without Seeing
  
  In Helen’s Big World, writer Doreen Rappaport shares an inspirational story about the life of Helen Keller and the obstacles she overcomes with her blindness. As Rappaport describes Helen’s determination and perseverance to reach her goals in life, despite her physical disabilities, life lessons of never giving up are revealed throughout the story.
  
  
  The story begins with Helen’s life as a baby. When she was very young she became very ill. Her illness left her blind, deaf and unable to speak. Helen says, “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” (25).Doreen allows her audience to see Helen’s strength and wisdom through her words.
  
  
  Doreen’s writing style is very unique for a children’s picture book. She has collected direct quotes from her subject and made the story come to life. The audience can empathize with Helen and her hardships in life based on the writing style Rappaport sets up. The illustrations are phenomenal and allow the students to feel more realistic to the students.
  
  
  Doreen’s use of quotes in the story are an outstanding way to make the story more realistic however, the placing of the quotes are a little confusing for a younger audience to read. Sometimes the quotes are within the middle of the text which sometimes allows the text to lose some of its meaning.
  
  
  This book creates a realistic image of Helen Keller’s life and allows the audience to feel the challenges she went through. The quotations included in the book made the writing come alive in a creative way. The vivid pictures captured the emotions and humanistic qualities of Helen and her family. If you are interested in learning more about Helen Keller or want to read an inspirational story, then you should read this book.
  
• 
  Calihan Scott

  * Personal Reaction: I found this book really interesting. I thought it was cool that throughout the book there are quotes of Helen Keller’s. The quotes help the reader get a better understanding of who she was. The illustration did a great job of showing what is being said on the page.
  * Read Aloud: This book would be great to read aloud to the students. Not only would teachers be introducing who Helen Keller is but they could also use this book to explain that everyone is different and have different obstacles to face in their lives.
  * Independent Read: This would another great book for students to use for a biography unit or project. This book would probably be better for students in 4th to 6th grade. There is simple words and sentences throughout the book. The illustration help the reader visualize what is happening.
  * Something that I thought was really cool about this book is in the back of the book there is a chart of how to form each letter in sign language. It says that Helen Keller would sometimes be spelled words in her hand using these sign language letters. There is also a timeline of important dates throughout Helen Keller’s life that help hit on the main points for students to better organize what happened. Another feature in the back of the book is a sources list. This helps the reader decide whether or not this would be a useful book.
  
• 
  Cortnee Hill

  Age Group: K-4
  Genre: Autobiography
  
  What an amazing picture biography of Helen Keller's challenges and triumphs!! Understanding Helen Keller's life can be a bit challenging at this age but the author and illustrator condensed the complicated story into a readable picture book that is captivating for young readers. I really like how the author placed quotes throughout the book to portray what was happening throughout her life. At the end of the book the author also provides a sign language chart which is helpful for children who may not have any prior knowledge about other ways in which people communicate.
  
  It would definitely be a great idea to utilize the quotes and turn it into a project for students to build critical thinking techniques(specifically, upper elementary). For example, you could break your students into groups of 2-4 and assign them a particular quote from the book. Next, you could ask the students to summarize what that quote means to them in relation to the Helen Kellers life. Finally, you could have the children create some sort of illustration or Poster Project based on their own conclusions and how it ties back into the book.
  
  In short,there are many many books about Helen Keller's life, but this one in particular offers an elusive perspective on her life and is most definitely a GOOD READ!
• 
  Becky

  First sentence: Helen gurgled and giggled in her crib. At six months, she crawled and said, "How-d'ye," and "wah-wah," for water. When she was one, she ran after a ray of sunshine. she loved the mockingbird's song and the sweet smell of climbing roses. But best of all was being on her father's laps and in her mother's arms.
  
  Premise/plot: Helen's Big World is a picture book biography of Helen Keller. Nearly every spread in this picture book includes a quote from Helen Keller herself. The narrative moves swiftly and is just beautiful.
  
  My thoughts: Oh how I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one!!!! I grew up LOVING the movie The Miracle Worker. And I've always been interested in Helen and Annie's lives. This one was a PERFECT match for me. The illustrations are BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING. The quotes almost leave me speechless. This one was my favorite:
  

  
  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 also love this one:
  

  I do not like the world as it is; so I am trying to make it a little more as I would like it.

  
  
  Text: 5 out of 5
  Illustrations: 5 out of 5
  Total: 10 out of 10
• 
  Jenny

  A brief biography of Helen Keller's life. I find her inspiring...but I find Annie Sullivan just as inspiring...to willingly spend hours reading Helen's textbooks at the expense of her own eyes, to be Helen's teacher and companion for 49 years. I liked the inclusion of some of Helen's own words throughout the text. My students were engaged and asked many questions as I read this book.
  
  I also thought the illustrations were gorgeous.
• 
  Kim

  I read this as an advanced copy. The cover has braille on it, which I think is wonderful. The illustrations are marvelous and the story also contains quotes from Keller. Goes beyond the books I was able to read about her as a kid. Includes history time line as well.
• 
  Christina Getrost

  Excellent just like Rappaport's other picture book biographies. Covers Helen's entire life in brief, with realistic, beautiful paintings. Has quotes from Helen, and sources. Nice introduction to the famous person for young children.
• 
  Caitlin

  I loved that Helen's adult life & social justice career is included in this story.
• 
  Elizabeth

  
  The top GR review said, "Superior to almost all the longer children's biographies of Keller in that it doesn't shy away from her later life as a social activist." and I was sold.
  
  However, I hadn't scrolled down to
  the review about the fake Braille on the cover and the pictorial misrepresentation of finger-spelling and Tadoma (placing your fringes on the speaker's lips, jawline, and cheeks) :/ (Though reading the book, both the picture and the text do mention touching the throat.)
  
  I do like that quotes from Keller herself are interspersed in the text -- though I'm not sure how smoothly that would work in reading the story to a young child.
  
  And that the narrative does't particularly suggest that being deafblind itself was particularly a bad thing, it was just that Keller found herself unable to communicate that was so frustrating. (And later it includes this quote from Keller: "The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people toward them.")
• 
  Kimberlee Gutterman

  This book adapted a biography into a very well suited picture book for children. I really liked how on every page there was an actual quote from Helen Keller which went along with the part of her life that was on those pages. This biography in particular was very nice because it highlighted Helen's life rather than talking about her disabilities and all the sad things that happened to her. I think this is important for children to understand because they should know that a disability doesn't define a person and we should never assume someone is not talented or important just because they are disabled. I think the illustrations in this book are extremely powerful because there was so much detail in the style of illustration. This book was a very good book and I think people of all ages could benefit from reading this.
• 
  Leslie Sanchez

  I really liked this book, I had heard of Helen Keller, but I had no idea how inspirational her biography was. Her biography starts out from when she was a baby until she died. She talks about the hard time she had with learning to read, write, and speak.
  
  I liked how it didn't just focus on her life but it included a very important person like her teacher Annie. It was a very humble and honest story, because in my opinion she might have not done what she had with out Annie’s determination. I especially liked how she told the story from birth to death because in some biographies we are left wondering what happened to the protagonist.