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It was on this day {June 1} 1968 that Helen Keller died in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 87. Blind and deaf from infancy, Keller circumvented her disabilities to become a world-renowned writer and lecturer.
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, on a farm near Tuscumbia, Alabama. A normal infant, she was stricken with an illness at 19 months, probably scarlet fever, which left her blind and deaf. For the next four years, she lived at home, a mute and unruly child. You can read more about Helen’s life here.
I have greatly loved the story of Helen Keller all of my life. On several occasions I’ve had the chance to bring the story of Helen Keller to life for my children and our friends. Each time it is a deeply moving experience as we walk into the world of the blind and deaf.
Recently I had the pleasure of picking up Annie and Helen by Deborah Hopkinson with illustrations by Raul Colon at our indie bookstore Union Street Books.
The inspiring story of Annie Sullivan and her student Helen Keller has captured the hearts and imaginations of people for over a hundred years. This beautiful picture book, with excerpts of Annie’s own letters to her former teacher Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins, shares the trials, joys, and inspirations of teaching Helen.
The telling of this story lends well to young readers as Annie opens Helen’s mind by making the world her classroom and we get to learn right along side her. Inside the pages of this well crafted story we discover Helen learning sign language, and learning to read and write in braille. It is because of Annie’s help that Helen Keller grew up to be the advocate for special needs people and a most accomplished woman of her time.
Have you read any of these books? Have you read them as a family? Share your thoughts and experiences with us!
**Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links.
Want to enjoy month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden? A Year in the Secret Garden is over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. A Year In the Secret Garden is our opportunity to introduce new generations of families to the magic of this classic tale in a modern and innovative way that creates special learning and play times outside in nature. This book encourages families to step away from technology and into the kitchen, garden, reading nook and craft room. Learn more, or grab your copy HERE.
Way back in the back then I had a series of posts recommending public domain books available from Gutenberg.org. I’m bringing it back today to recommend the remarkable writing of Helen Keller. Of course we all know who she is, but get past the feral child played rather wonderfully by Patty Duke and the tasteless jokes and you find a remarkable thinker and activist with a gift for crisp writing.
Find her major works here. Of course you should read her autobiography, The Story of My Life, which is the best known and most familiar, but The World I Live In is well worth looking into for a more mature author who captures the experience of being deafblind; it is not about the pain of darkness and silence but the wonder of being so tuned to physical sensations. And see her long essay, Optimism, where she writes about “happiness as faith.”
In my mind there is a list of short books that can change your life: Hesse’s Siddhartha, Dillards’s The Writing Life, Wiesel’s Night, or Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Any of these three books could be on that list.
I do not know her writing process, perhaps finger-spelling to a transcriptionist, and later poring over drafts with the secretary finger-spelling her own words back into her palm. In any case, it could not have been easy work. Keller’s writing is wonderful and important without these considerations, but as a writer I have to think about and wonder at her resolve. Maybe the effort for every line led to the precision and power in her writing.
This book will appeal to middle grade readers who like stories about inventions, airplanes, famous people, overcoming difficulties, and life in earlier times.
Enter to win a Who Was? book from Grosset & Dunlap's leading biography series.
Giveaway begins March 21, 2014, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends April 20, 2014, at 11:59 P.M. PST.
Enter to win a copy of Deborah Hopkinson’s biographical picture book Annie and Helen; illustrated by Raul Colon.
An original new book about two amazing women from history, Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller.
Giveaway begins September 9, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends October 7, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST.
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 48 pages
Overview
Author Deborah Hopkinson and illustrator Raul Colón present the story of Helen Keller in a fresh and original way that is perfect for young children. Focusing on the relationship between Helen and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, the book is interspersed with excerpts of Annie’s letters home, written as she struggled with her angry, wild pupil. But slowly, with devotion and determination, Annie teaches Helen finger spelling and braille, letters, and sentences. As Helen comes to understand language and starts to communicate, she connects for the first time with her family and the world around her. The lyrical text and exquisite art will make this fascinating story a favorite with young readers. Children will also enjoy learning the Braille alphabet, which is embossed on the back cover of the jacket.
About the Author
DEBORAH HOPKINSON is the author, most recently, of A Boy Called Dickens. She has written numerous other books, including Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building, an ALA Notable Book and a Boston Globe-Horn BookHonor Book; Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, an ALA Notable Book and a Junior Library Guild Selection; and the ALA Notable Apples to Oregon. Her many other acclaimed titles include Under the Quilt of Night and Fannie in the Kitchen. Visit: http://www.deborahhopkinson.com
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Giveaway begins September 9, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends October 7, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST, when all entries must be received. No purchase necessary. See official rules for details. View our privacy policy.
Recently I had the opportunity at my day job (I’m vice president for advancement at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon) to take the popular “Strengths Finder” test. My top strength turned out to be “Learner.”
I’d have to say that’s a fairly accurate description. It also explains much about how I choose the subjects I write about in my nonfiction and historical fiction for young readers. I have wide-ranging reading interests (I like to read with my story antennas up). When I’m learning something new, I’m engaged, enthuse, and happy. And then there are those magical moments when I come across something extraordinary that makes me sit up and say, “Wow! How come I never knew that before?” Whenever this happens, there’s a good chance I want to write about it.
That’s certainly true with my new nonfiction picture book, Annie and Helen, illustrated by Raul Colon. Like most people I knew the general outlines of Helen Keller’s life, and I was familiar with the iconic moment at the water pump. But I knew very little of Annie Sullivan, or the details of her actual teaching methods. What I found was astonishing – so astonishing I wanted to share it with young readers.
When I first began researching this book, I actually focused more on Annie Sullivan, whose early life was fraught with hardship. After her mother’s death, she and her little brother were put in an almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, where her brother later died. Annie, who’d become almost blind herself from trachoma, was able to go to the Perkins School for the Blind when she was 14. Operations partially restored her sight and she graduated in 1886 at the top of her class. The next spring, not quite 21, she set off alone from New England by train to take her first job: teaching a young deaf and blind child in Alabama named Helen Keller.
Annie Sullivan invented her own teaching methods, and that’s what I ultimately decided to write about in Annie and Helen. The book includes excerpts from Annie’s letters to her friend and former house mother, Mrs. Sophia Hopkins. The letters chronicle Helen’s progress and show how inventive and resourceful Annie was as she helped Helen make sense of the world through language. That spring must have been exhilarating for both teacher and student: by July, Helen had mastered enough skills to write a simple letter.
Annie and Helen is not a “cradle to grave biography.” Instead, it covers the period of March-July 1887, when teacher and pupil forged their incredible relationship. While I have written traditional biographies for very young readers on John Adams and Susan B. Anthony, and on Charles Darwin for slightly older readers, I often prefer to focus on a specific incident or a time period in order to illuminate someone’s life. Keep On! focuses on Matthew Henson’s early life and Arctic explorations, A Band of Angels is about Ella Sheppard’s experiences as a Jubilee Singer, and A Boy Called Dickens shows Dickens at age 12, when he was working in a blacking factory.
My books also include both nonfiction and historical fiction. My 2012 title, Titanic: Voices from the Disaster is nonfiction. But rather than write a biography of Dr. John Snow, the pioneering epidemiologist who proved that cholera was spread by water, I chose to fictionalize the story in my forthcoming middle grade novel, The Great Trouble, A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel. Hopefully readers will enjoy the story, and also there’s a long author’s note included if they want to know more.
I hope I will also be a reader who wants to know more. And perhaps that’s also a reason for choosing to write about Helen Keller. What better inspiration for the love of learning could there be?
Barack Obama is the forty-fourth president of the United States. Born in Hawaii to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, he himself is now the father of two daughters, Malia and Sasha. It was spending time with them that inspired him to write Of Thee I Sing. After Barack Obama became president, he and his wife, Michelle, and their daughters moved into the White House in Washington, DC, where they currently live with their dog, Bo.
About the illustrator:
Loren Long is the bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator of many beloved books for children, including Drummer Boy and the New York Times bestseller Otis. Born in Missouri and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, he is also the illustrator of Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could, as well as Toy Boat, I Dream of Trains, and Wind Flyers. He lives in Ohio with his wife, Tracy, their two sons, Griffith and Graham, and their dogs, Elle and Moon.
About the book:
In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation. From the artistry of Georgia O’Keeffe, to the courage of Jackie Robinson, to the patriotism of George Washington, President Obama sees the traits of these heroes within his own children, and within all of America’s children. This book was written before Barack Obama become President. All proceeds from the book’s sales go to a scholarship fund for military children with a parent who was killed or disabled.
President Obama’s attorney, Robert B. Barnett, handled the negotiations for the manuscript back in 2009. Knopf executive editor Michelle Frey edited the book. Children’s book artist Loren Long provided the illustrations.
So there I was, in my last post, saying how helpful it is to write everyday. That was on July 7. July 8, I slept in and didn’t write. July 9, I wrote — Yay! But today, July 10, I’m up early but sadly to work, not write. I’m not sure I’ll be able to write today. Oh well. We keep going.
Current word count: 11,063
Words written yesterday: 363
Words to goal: 28,937/ 349 words a day til end of September
From time to time, I discover new writing-related blogs, from writers, editors, agents and publishers and add them to my blog roll. My most recent is by Michael Hyatt, CEO of publishing house Thomas Nelson, Inc. The cool thing is he has two, one regular blog and one, called Resources, for short snippets about things he finds useful. My favorites in his Resources posts are the quotes, and the one that stuck out to me the other day was by Helen Keller:
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” –Helen Keller
So, when you’re toiling away at your novel, suffering through rejections and doubts, think that this is all part of your journey, strengthening your soul.
Here’s another:
“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.” –Old Chinese proverb
This is probably what keeps gamblers continuing to play even after big losses, but for writers, where any loss is only experience gained, this thought can help us keep up our motivation.
Hyatt has lots of other good quotes on the page — I love the one on avoiding writing from P.J. O’Rourke, but it’s long, so I’ll let you click over to read it — so, if you ever need some inspiration, head over there and browse away.
How’s your writing coming?
Write On!
3 Comments on Quotes to inspire us, last added: 7/12/2009
I went through my first two chapters again, made even more changes, and finally managed to moved on. I got through 18 new pages today! Unfortunately, I’m still not loving them…
They’ll get there. I hope you get time to write today, and if not today, definitely tomorrow!
daybydaywriter said, on 7/11/2009 7:38:00 AM
Wow! 18 pages. That’s awesome, Casey. Well done. Don’t worry if you’re still not loving them. Sometimes you can’t make them great, until you’ve fixed other things about them. You’ve taken your first step. Continue to move through the revision, and in your next round, you can work to make them closer to loving them.
Karen @ Musings of a Novelista said, on 7/11/2009 11:10:00 AM
Those are great quotes! I’ll have to check out these blogs.
Ran across this slim paperback during a browse at Pooh's Corner the other day, and darned if this isn't a standout in the slew of Keller series bios. (Helen seems to be a required installment in every last biography series for kids, along with MLK, JFK, Edison, Lincoln, Washington, and Franklin, in case you haven't noticed.) I only had time for a skim, but notable features include a DK-style format, uncommon images, and text that doesn't appear to gloss over eyebrow-raising topics like Helen's botched elopement. I found myself nodding in agreement over the snippets I read, as well as tracking the photo credits on a couple of unique pictures, which are quite a luxury for me anymore. For a quick yet respectable overview of Helen Keller for upper elementary grades, give this skinny-minnie a try.
Some writers refer to the process of writing as drawing water from a well, hinting at a reservoir of words stored beneath the surface.
That well, like an underground aquifer, feeds our imaginations and drenches our words in the same way that underground streams secretly nourish the landscape.
And it's limitless--yes, limitless--but only if we acknowledge the well as a source and carefully
0 Comments on Drawing Water From The Well as of 1/1/1900
Barbara W. Klaser said, on 12/1/2007 12:41:00 PM
I've always loved that story about Helen Keller at the water pump. It's a powerful illustration of how our minds suddenly open up, the "aha" experience. Journal writing often leads me to more productive writing. It's my most reliable writing ritual. I also often find when writing an essay that as I work through the first draft I discover what the essay is really about, the idea I was
Bruce said, on 12/1/2007 5:18:00 PM
Barbara,I think that "aha" experience-- whether it takes ten words or ten thousand words--is what we strive for in our writing... a moment of discovery, a chance to find something that we hadn't known or seen before. Each time it happens, it feels like an unexpected gift, doesn't it?Thanks so much for honoring Wordswimmer with "A Roar for Powerful Words" award. You've been so encouraging from the
When Dorothy Thompson approached me about having Sandi Kahn Shelton on my blog, I didn't say yes right away. Not because I feared that Sandi was a horrible writer (she most definitely is not), but because I try to host people on this blog that I would legitimately read (or be interested in reading) even if I don't get a chance to read over their book before I give it away. So armed with a name and the power of Google, I did a bit of research on Ms. Shelton, and discovered a woman with the power to look at the trials and tribulations that families cause with the humor necessary to make it through those moments.
Dodie Smith once called families "the dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hears, ever quite wish to." They are our burdens and our loves, the sources of our deepest pain and our greatest amusement. In her books, Shelton acknowledges these lows and highs with humor and poignancy, making limoncellos out of life's lemons and offering up a perfect cool read on a hot day.
It's a pleasure to have Sandi join us today to talk about writing, families and books we love.
Bookseller Chick: Thanks for joining me, Sandi. Both A Piece of Normal and your first novel, What Comes After Crazy, revolved around families. How does Lily's relationship with Dana differ from Maz's relationship with Madame Lucille?
Sandi Shelton: Oooh, that’s such a good question. Nobody’s ever asked me that before, and it’s fun to think about. First I’d like to say that I love to write about families, because I think that’s where the real power that shapes us lies…and where we learn the essential truth that we can both love people and want to kill them at the same time.
In A Piece of Normal, Lily is the “got-it-all-together” sister whose life is sooo comfortable and sweet—she’s an advice columnist who tells everybody else how to live, and in fact, is still best friends with her ex-husband. (She won’t find a new lover until she finds somebody for Teddy, too!) When her little sister, the flaky punk-rocker Dana, blows into town after a ten-year tiff, Lily realizes that maybe there are just a few tiny little details about life she didn’t always have a handle on: like—hello? How did she miss the Huge Family Secret that was always right under her nose? The relationship between the two sisters goes from bad to awful—but in that way of families, they have to learn what’s worth saving and what can be walked away from.
Maz’s situation—oh, boy! She’s an only child raised by an itinerant, many-times-married fortune-teller, and somehow in her travels to carnivals with her mom, she learned how to make a decent gin and tonic and how to tell which of her mom’s many husbands was likely to stick around, but she didn’t get the essential skills of life, like how to make a home. When her own marriage falls apart, leaving her with two little girls to raise—and Madame Lucille comes back to town with her latest husband, Maz’s job isn’t to figure out how to continue being in her mother’s shadow, it’s to figure out how to stand her own ground and not let the past overwhelm her.
B.S. Chick: Speaking of family, how do you handle the responsibilities that come from being a mom and a full time writer?
Sandi: Well…it took me SEVENTEEN YEARS to write the first novel, if that’s any indication of that little balancing act! No, seriously—writing a novel was what I got to do when all the other things were done: the costumes sewed, the dioramas set up, and all the carpools carpooled. I was working—still am actually—as a feature reporter and columnist, doing magazine articles, as well as writing three humorous non-fiction books about parenting, but my real dream was to write this novel! I simply could not put it aside and forget about it, and—hey, I just realized that it finally got finished when my last child got her own driver’s license! My advice to Mom Writers everywhere: get driver’s licenses for your kids!
B.S. Chick: You've written for a number of magazines during your writing career. Is Lily's job as an advice columnist based anything you've written/done previously?
Sandi: Actually, no. That question makes me smile, because I first realized Lily was an advice columnist when she came to me as a character who was soooo smug about her life. I mean, this woman really knows the secrets of life—she even tells other people how to live. I thought it would be fun to write about somebody whose own life is kind of falling apart around the edges, meanwhile she’s telling everybody else what to do…and I figured her advice column would change to reflect her greater awareness of her own foibles.
My magazine writing wasn’t ever advice-driven; it was mainly humorous essays about parenting, which later became books in some kind of magical way. The “advice” in my books and magazine articles (if it could be boiled down into one sterling sentence) would have to be: Muddle through as best you can, and remember that no one else knows what they’re doing either.
B.S. Chick: On your website you have a feature set up for book groups to contact you about answering questions via email or setting up 30-minute conference calls, is this a new feature? Do you have any interesting stories about readers using either of these services?
Sandi: Oh, this has been very fun! Mainly this has been through phone calls. Book groups contact me, let me know when they are meeting, and then I call them at the appointed hour. We chat about the book, I answer their questions, and I’ve loved doing it. People ask such insightful questions. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we get all analytical about human nature and writing—it’s such a great way to connect with readers.
B.S. Chick: Your books, both fiction and nonfiction, seem to contain a humorous tone. Do you believe that a good sense of humor is necessary to get through day to day life?
Sandi: Absolutely! My first book was called You Might As Well Laugh and it’s a collection of columns I wrote for my local newspaper (for ten years), many of which appeared in Working Mother magazine’s Wits’ End column. When I started writing this column for my paper, I was a single mother of two kids working in an office in which NO ONE had any kids whatsoever. Many had never heard of children. They would come in to work after having played tennis, for heaven’s sake, or just having had great sex. I, meanwhile, wandered in after just having fought with a 3-year old about why she couldn’t drink her milk out of the soy sauce bottle! The thing was, when I started my column, I just wrote about all the tragic and annoying things going on in my house, and I swear I did not know it was a humor column until people started telling me it was funny. That’s when I realized that daily life, in all its awfulness, can only be handled by laughing about it—hopefully with other people laughing with you.
B.S. Chick: Since at one time I was a bookseller and this a bookselling blog, what books do recommend my readers check out?
Wow! That’s a hard question. I love so many writers. I love Jennifer Crusie and Anne Tyler and Alice Munro and Lolly Winston and Elinor Lipman. Recently I’ve discovered the writer, Haven Kimmel, who writes the funniest and most breathtaking memoirs about growing up in Mooreland, Indiana. (Her latest is called She Got Up Off the Couch.) For those who like essays, there’s a wonderful anthology about what parenthood does to a romance, called Blindsided by a Diaper, that has essays that will make you laugh and some that will make you almost want to cry. (Full disclosure: I have one of the essays. But I’m simply in awe of the ones in that book that are not mine.)
Thank you so much, Linsey, for letting me come on your site and answer your very thought-provoking and insightful questions!
B.S. Chick: No, Sandi, thank you. If you want to hear more about Sandi you can read her blog, or catch her at any of the following stops on her virtual tour:
Like Gil, Sandi has offered up a copy of her new book if you're interested, so leave your comments below. I'll take comments on both interviews until Friday when I'll draw a name at random and send off the books.
0 Comments on Piecing Together Normal: An Interview with Sandi Kahn Shelton as of 5/15/2007 7:38:00 AM
Way back in the back then I had a series of posts recommending public domain books available from 
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President 
I’ll have to check out that blog!
I went through my first two chapters again, made even more changes, and finally managed to moved on. I got through 18 new pages today! Unfortunately, I’m still not loving them…
They’ll get there. I hope you get time to write today, and if not today, definitely tomorrow!
Wow! 18 pages. That’s awesome, Casey. Well done. Don’t worry if you’re still not loving them. Sometimes you can’t make them great, until you’ve fixed other things about them. You’ve taken your first step. Continue to move through the revision, and in your next round, you can work to make them closer to loving them.
Those are great quotes! I’ll have to check out these blogs.