This book is a biography about the life of Helen Keller, which includes not only text, but also of many photographs taken during her lifetime. It tells Helen’s story in chronological order, beginning with the illness that left her both deaf and blind at only nineteen months old. It goes on to tell how Annie Sullivan helped Helen learn to read and write, and their lifelong journey of meeting people like Alexander Graham Bell and Mark Twain. The book explains how Helen traveled all over the world supporting the blind, protesting war, and working with wounded veterans. The pictures and the text work together to tell the story of this amazing woman’s life, and leaves the reader in awe of her legacy.
After reading this book in my classroom, I would first use it to discuss the arrangement and characteristics of a biography. We would then read an autobiography and make a venn diagram to compare these two types of non-fiction. Afterwards, I would give the students the task of creating a collection of pictures which tell the story of their own lives, similar to the way this book was composed. Another option is to introduce this book on the first day of school. I would then have the students partner up with another person in the class, and have them write each other’s biographies. This activity would serve two purposes; the first is to introduce students to biographies, the second is to help the students get to know each other better.
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