Helen Keller: The World in Her Heart - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 4—Keller's story has been told countless times, so Cline-Ransome wisely keeps her focus tight, showing the developing relationship between Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan. The story opens with the sensory sensations of Helen's world: the feel of the warm spring breeze, the smell of a baking cake. A brief flashback explains the illness that left her deaf and blind, and the subsequent lack of communication that rendered her a wild and unmanageable child. Then the narrative transitions back to the moment when Sullivan enters her life and expects something more from her: an ability to learn. Told from Helen's point of view, the book takes readers from her dislike of this demanding stranger who continuously traces shapes in her palm, to her revelatory moment by the water pump, and finally to the realization that "Teacher" loves her. The author has chosen evocative details from Keller's life (she could feel "the jostle of the bumps along the road, but she couldn't see where they were going"). Some projection of thoughts necessarily happens, particularly in portraying the pre-lingual Helen, but Cline-Ransome is able to match the spirit of Keller's autobiographical writings. James Ransome cites John Singer Sargent as his inspiration for his bright, handsome paintings. An excellent, accessible introduction to a fascinating woman.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD
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