Little Helen was curious and eager to learn about the world. After contracting an illness during childhood, she became deaf and blind at the age of one and was unable to talk. Helen and her family found ways to connect with each other, such as hand-signing. But when Anne Sullivan, a teacher, came into her life, Helen discovered more ways to communicate with the wider world, learning finger-spelling and how to talk. This saw her become the first deaf-blind person to earn a university degree, and led her to tour the world advocating for the rights of disabled people. This book includes extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of this amazing woman's life.

When she was 19 months old, Helen Keller (1880-1968) suffered a severe illness that left her blind and deaf. Not long after, she also became mute. Her tenacious struggle to overcome these handicaps- with the help of her inspired and inspiring teacher, Anne Sullivan- is one of the great stories of human courage and dedication. The Story of My Life, first published in 1903, is Helen Keller's classic autobiography detailing the first 22 years of her life, including the magical moment at a water pump when, recognizing the connection between the word "water" and the cold liquid flowing over her hand, she realized that objects had names. She had many experiences which were equally thrilling and noteworthy including her joy at eventually learning to speak so that by the time she was 16, she could speak well enough to attend preparatory school followed by her education at Radcliffe, from which she graduated cum laude, and of course, her extraordinary relationship with Miss Sullivan who had shown a remarkable gift and genius for communicating with her eager and quick-to-learn pupil. Keller also writes of her friendships with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edward Everett Hale and other notables. Keller first began to write The Story of My Life in 1902, when she was still a student at Radcliffe College. The book is dedicated to inventor Alexander Graham Bell, and the dedication reads, "To ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL Who has taught the deaf to speak and enabled the listening ear to hear speech from the Atlantic to the Rockies, I dedicate this Story of My Life."

In this kids' biography, discover the inspiring story of Helen Keller, who overcame the odds by learning to understand and communicate with the world. Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing due to an early childhood illness and spent the first 6 years of her life unable to interact with other people. She remained isolated from the outside world until Anne Sullivan came to work as her teacher. In this biography book for kids ages 8-11, learn all about Helen Keller's amazing life and achievements - how she learned to read Braille and speak, go to college, write books, and ultimately revolutionize the world through her activism on behalf of the deaf and blind. This new biography series from DK goes beyond the basic facts to tell the true life stories of history's most interesting people. Full-color photographs and hand-drawn illustrations complement thoughtfully written, age-appropriate text to create an engaging book children will enjoy reading. Definition boxes, information sidebars, maps, inspiring quotes, and other nonfiction text features add depth, and a handy reference section at the back makes this the one biography series every teacher and librarian will want to collect. Each book also includes an author's introduction letter, a glossary, and an index.

An introduction to the life and legacy of Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan.

Raised in Alabama, she sent shockwaves through the South when she launched a public broadside against Jim Crow and donated to the NAACP. She used her fame to oppose American intervention in WWI. She spoke out against Hitler the month he took power in 1933 and embraced the anti-fascist cause during the Spanish Civil War. She was one of the first public figures to alert the world to the evils of Apartheid, raising money to defend Nelson Mandela when he faced the death penalty for High Treason. She lambasted Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Cold War, even as her contemporaries shied away from his notorious witch hunt. But who was this revolutionary figure? She was Helen Keller. From books to movies to Barbie dolls, most mainstream portrayals of Keller focus heavily on her struggles as a deafblind child-portraying her Teacher, Annie Sullivan, as a miracle worker. This narrative-which has often made Keller a secondary character in her own story-has resulted in few people knowing that Keller's greatest accomplishment was not learning to speak, but what she did with her voice when she found it. After the Miracle is a much-needed corrective to this antiquated narrative. In this first major biography of Keller in decades, Max Wallace reveals that the lionization of Sullivan at the expense of her famous pupil was no accident, and calls attention to Keller's efforts as a card-carrying socialist, fierce anti-racist, and progressive disability advocate. Despite being raised in an era when eugenics and discrimination were commonplace, Keller consistently challenged the media for its ableist coverage and was one of the first activists to highlight the links between disability and capitalism, even as she struggled against the expectations and prejudices of those closest to her. Peeling back the curtain that obscured Keller's political crusades in favor of her "inspirational" childhood, After the Miracle chronicles the complete legacy of one of the 20th century's most extraordinary figures.