Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller

by Joseph Lambert, Joseph Lambert (Illustrator)

Overview

Helen Keller lost her ability to see and hear before she turned two years old. But in her lifetime, she learned to ride horseback and dance the foxtrot. She graduated from Radcliffe. She became a world famous speaker and author. She befriended Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, and Alexander Graham Bell. And above all, she revolutionized public perception and treatment of the blind and the deaf. The catalyst for this remarkable life's journey was Annie Sullivan, a young woman who was herself visually impaired. Hired as a tutor when Helen was six years old, Annie broke down the barriers between Helen and the wider world, becoming a fiercely devoted friend and lifelong companion in the process. In Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, author and illustrator Joseph Lambert examines the powerful bond between teacher and pupil, forged through the intense frustrations and revelations of Helen's early education. The result is an inspiring, emotional, and wholly original take on the story of these two great Americans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368027410
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Series:	Center for Cartoon Studies Graphic Novel Series
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	61 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Joseph Lambert is an Eisner and Ignatz Award-winning cartoonist. A graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, he has drawn comics and illustrations that have appeared in Mome, The Best American Comics, Komiksfest! Review, and Dark Horse Presents, as well as in Business Week, Popular Mechanics, and I Will Bite You!, a collection of short stories published by Secret Acres.  
 

Editorial Reviews

* "[B]rilliantly conceived and executed. . . . [R]arely is [this story] presented in such a breathtaking, original, and empathetic fashion."- Booklist (starred review)

PRAISE FOR AMELIA EARHART: THIS BROAD OCEAN

* "Reluctant readers, adventure fans, and those who themselves yearn for the skies will be sucked right into the immediacy here."- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

PRAISE FOR AMELIA EARHART: THIS BROAD OCEAN

* "Like Earhart herself, this book ought to soar exuberantly into the hearts of its readers."- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

PRAISE FOR THOREAU AT WALDEN

2009 ALA Best Book for Young Adults

PRAISE FOR SATCHEL PAIGE: STRIKING OUT JIM CROW

* "By emphasizing Paige's influence and mythos rather than focusing on details about his life and career, Sturm and Tommaso offer a powerful and unique testimony to his legacy."
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

PRAISE FOR HOUDINI: THE HANDCUFF KING

* "Bertozzi's illustrations are simply spectacular."- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[I]t's hard not to be moved by Lambert's depiction."- Horn Book

"A wonderful resource."- School Library Journal

"A visual stunner that covers new ground."- Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR THOREAU AT WALDEN

* "Porcellino creates a poetic alternation of words and silences that effectively draws the reader into Thoreau's point of view."- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

Gr 6–8—The story of Sullivan, who was visually impaired herself, starts off with her in the Keller home wrestling with the difficult task of teaching the young blind and deaf child. As the story progresses, readers see the difficult times that Sullivan had as a child, losing family and becoming an orphan, and then being hired by the Kellers. None of these things is easy, but she finally breaks through to Helen and, as her understanding reaches new levels, she still has to deal with perceptions and expectations that others hold over both of them. Told from Sullivan's viewpoint, this color-filled graphic novel has many of the simple drawings blacked out with shapes or colored blobs to represent how she sees people and items. Much of the narration also comes from letters written to her old schoolmaster and is done in script. A wonderful resource for reports or interesting nonfiction reading, this graphic novel does a great job of describing how things were for the teacher and her pupil and the challenges they both faced. The book concludes with a four-page section that explains aspects of the various panels.—Mariela Siegert, Westfield Middle School, Bloomingdale, IL

School Library Journal

The story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan is given new life in an imaginative graphic novel. This volume from The Center for Cartoon Studies focuses on the trials both Annie and Helen struggle with in their lives. If Helen was a trial for her family and Annie over the years, she is literally put on trial at the Perkins Institution. The final third of the book is devoted to this "trial," not nearly as well known as the famous scene at the well, where Helen finally makes the mental connection that water is always water, whether in a cup, in a pitcher or running from a pump. Having gone on to learn to write, she is accused of plagiarizing her story "The Frost King," which was published in the Perkins Institution's alumni magazine. Interrogated for two hours, Helen was so devastated that she never wrote fiction again. The incident allows Lambert to go beyond the famous well scene to further explore the nature of words, language and ideas. "If your ideas don't come from teacher, where do they come from?" Helen's interrogators ask. It's a sophisticated, sometimes overly abstract, presentation, but the volume, like its predecessors, is visually appealing and daring. Helen's perspective is powerfully communicated in dialogue-free black panels in which she is represented as only a gray silhouette. A visual stunner that covers new ground. (panel discussions, bibliography, suggested reading) (Graphic nonfiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews