Customer Reviews

Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark (Step-Into-Reading, Step 4)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I used this book with my second grade children in a unit on communications. They were fascinated by the story and learned a lot of new vocabulary words. The book's content was such that my children were able to try to imagine what it would be like to be deaf, blind, or both. The book was also a springboard for discussion on courage, perseverance, determination, and achieving goals, as it gave concrete examples of these abstract concepts. We also used the book to learn a little geography as we traced the path of Helen's travels on a map. It includes a picture of the Braille alphabet, which we used to write and "decode" messages, an exercise the kids loved! Contrary to the opinion of another reviewer, we really liked the artwork and the content. Obviously, I recommend this book.

I first read this book to my daughter when she was 5 years old, and she has been fascinated with Helen Keller ever since. We have read and reread this book numerous times, and she never loses interest. This led to buying other Helen Keller books and an interest in learning sign language. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a young child. It's a great book for getting a child interested in true stories/biographies!

Because of my husband's work, we have unfortunately had to move around quite a bit. I was looking for English books for my 8 year old that would be at her reading level yet would be engaging. This fit the bill.

My daughter eagerly read the book (and has read it several times now) and has begun to ask me many questions about Helen Keller, braille, blindness and deafness, etc. Marvellous! I was quite pleased with the results.

I did not purchase this book as an historical treatise and so did not expect it to go at length into Helen Keller's life. But my daughter could relate to the story of a young girl who is presented with tremendous challenges and not only overcomes but succeeds in living a fruitful, rewarding and exemplary life. Because it is written in a "chewable" English, she didn't give up on the book. I found this book to be very positive.

The "Step Into Reading" series on the whole I found to be very good. Historical topics tend to be chosen rather than "fairy" stories for content. The writing style is challenging but not out-of-reach. And the books are engaging.

I do not hesitate to recommend this book for 6 - 8 year olds. Encouraging girls to read about positive female role models - - I do think Helen Keller would approve.

It was about a girl name Helen Keller. She was born on June,27 1880. She lived on a farm in Alabama. But one day she had a high fever and cause her to go blind and deaf. Her parents couldn't tell if she was hungry,tried, or thrist. When she wake up in the middle of the night she thought it was moring and cryed for her breakfast. Finally her parents ask for help then this young lady ask name Anne Sullivan. Anne was once almost blind but she had several operations to help her see again. At first Helen gave her problems. Whatever Helen did to Anne she would do the same to her. Later Helen learned to listen to Anne. She also learned how to do sign language to deaf people or people that can see and hear. Helen's parents were very proud of her because she learned how to do many things that a person like her couldn't do. Helen later went to college and became famous. Then she passed away before eieght-first birthday.

I recommend this book because it tells about how a girl can do something with her life even though she's blind.

Ok, I would have given this a 5. I don't have the same complaint that some do about it not having enough details. Look at the age range on the book: it's for ages 4-8, step into reading level 4, which is supposed to be for kids just starting to read complete sentences. How much longer or more detailed could/should a book for that audience be? I think it's a wonderful story to tell, with a message if courage and perseverance. I also like the idea of teaching kids at this stage, just learning to read, about Helen Keller's enormous struggle to understand words and to communicate. It kind of makes their own learning to read and write seem more valuable, and the challenges not as large.

I gave it a 4 because my daughter had a specific comment when she compared this to another biography she read yesterday. She liked the other one better, because this one "didn't have as much detail about her family". She wanted there to be more about Helen's parents, any brothers or sisters, etc. I thought I should share that because it seemed like a pretty perceptive piece of information coming from a 6 year old... she complained that this just talked about what she did, her life, her school, and not her family.

I enjoyed learning about Helen Keller's life from reading this book. I especially liked the part about how she turned into an excellent student from a bad student. It is amazing how she learned so many languages and travelled to so many places even though she could not see nor hear. I also liked the braille alphabet at the end of the book.

The authors and publishers should be ashamed. Helen Kellers's life was NOT simply filled with "silence and darkness", as the authors write. She was a fighter for women's rights, including the right to vote. She denounced the murder of coal miners by John D. Rockefeller. She helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. She worked tirelessly for peace. She lived a long, full NOISY 88 years.

This book reduces her to a permanent teenager, and an image on a postage stamp. This book misinforms young people, and gives them a ridiculous idea of what Helen Keller was really all about.

Any information children get about Helen Keller is probably better than none. The title Courage in the Dark, is oh so cliche. If she was only blind, she wouldn't have been so well known. Blindness only cut her off from objects, it was her deafness that isolated her from communication. The combination of being blind and deaf defined challenges for her. The book gives the play-by-play about her life with little details. She earned a college degree reading fingerspelling into her palm. This was a period few when women even went to college. An enormous deal should have been made about her never giving up. There are probably better books about Helen Keller and I would encourage anyone to learn more about Deaf Culture. It is quite amazing how they fought for the same rights everyone else had. If you are looking for information on people like Helen Keller, try the deaf-blind lions club in your area.

A book on such familiar ground really deserves better visual enhancement than ineptly executed, unappealing grade school level art. It was quite a detriment to the overall experience, which my children found insufferably dull. Hopefully future editions will correct this missed opportunity for a fresh approach.