My Writing Book of the Day: Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career, by Nancy I. Sanders. Quick quote: “Write for personal fulfillment. Just be sure to use a separate strategy to get published–frequently and on a regular basis.” Nancy lays out a very detailed and practical plan for the building a career using the three kinds of writing you might do: for personal fulfillment; for publication; and for income. Awesome for those of us who like details and plans! (I’m sharing a favorite writing book every day for a bit in case you need ideas for your holiday gift list–or want to buy a gift for yourself!)
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Annie and Helen
by Deborah Hopkinson
Schwartz & Wade, 2012
I only know the most basic information about Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, and I always kind of wondered *exactly* how Annie taught a child who could neither see nor hear to make words. It seems like an impossible task!
I heard about this book at NCTE–wonderful!
This book explains it all, in a way that acknowledges the enormity of the task but makes the process understandable. Helen is a real, frustrated, tantrum-throwing girl. And Annie is a real person, patient, firm, and determined. Their story is amazing and inspiring.
And the writing is pretty amazing, too.
About Helen, before she could communicate with words: “Helen was like a small, wild bird, throwing herself against the bars of a dark and silent cage.”
About Annie’s determination: “Annie spelled into Helen’s palm all day long. Like someone on a windy peak trying to kindle a fire for warmth, Annie kept hoping for a spark to catch.”
And structuring the book around Annie’s letter to her own former teacher makes the ending, the text of Helen’s very first written letter, the perfect ending, at once an end and a beginning.
This is a lovely book, start to finish.
Review copy from my library.
Anastasia Suen has the Nonfiction Monday roundup at Booktalking!
When I still worked as a librarian, I helped a couple: he was deaf and she was deaf-blind.He spelled into her hand to communicate, same as Annie and Helen.
Amazing how we find ways to connect with each other, no matter what:>)
When I still worked as a librarian, I helped a couple: he was deaf and she was deaf-blind.He spelled into her hand to communicate, same as Annie and Helen.
Amazing how we find ways to connect with each other, no matter what:>)
Thanks for both of these!! I was actually in “The Miracle Worker” in HS, as the maid. I had to clean up all the broken dishes from the fight scene in the half-dark. Last year a local professional theater company put this on and the young local actress who played Helen was beyond incredible. If you haven’t seen this play try to go some time, especially if you hear it is good!!! Recently I was talking about research on dyslexia and findings by a woman in England that it has to do with hearing. But then another famous professor with whom I email asked me how this explains the fact that the deaf can learn to read, hmmmm I think that is a very fascinating idea from the cognitive theory world I live in when I am not enjoying poetry……I was excited by the English woman’s work because they have found that nursery rhymes and rythmic poem reciting helps dyslexics. I also love the book on publishing.
Fun! And interesting theories on dyslexia. I would have assumed that the hearing aspect of it had already been exhaustively explored–though I don’t know much about the topic. If rhymes and rhythm help people with dyslexia, maybe the constant repetition in hand signing offsets dyslexia that deaf people have…just a thought!
Thanks for both of these!! I was actually in “The Miracle Worker” in HS, as the maid. I had to clean up all the broken dishes from the fight scene in the half-dark. Last year a local professional theater company put this on and the young local actress who played Helen was beyond incredible. If you haven’t seen this play try to go some time, especially if you hear it is good!!! Recently I was talking about research on dyslexia and findings by a woman in England that it has to do with hearing. But then another famous professor with whom I email asked me how this explains the fact that the deaf can learn to read, hmmmm I think that is a very fascinating idea from the cognitive theory world I live in when I am not enjoying poetry……I was excited by the English woman’s work because they have found that nursery rhymes and rythmic poem reciting helps dyslexics. I also love the book on publishing.
Fun! And interesting theories on dyslexia. I would have assumed that the hearing aspect of it had already been exhaustively explored–though I don’t know much about the topic. If rhymes and rhythm help people with dyslexia, maybe the constant repetition in hand signing offsets dyslexia that deaf people have…just a thought!
Both books sound fantastic! Thanks for sharing 🙂
They are!
Both books sound fantastic! Thanks for sharing 🙂
They are!