Customer Reviews

Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius

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

 

 

I found this book beautiful to flip through and enjoy on a quick, surface level and then even more powerful to read. I loved the photographs that transported me to the French countryside that Louis Braille grew up in; I relished in the descriptions of what life was like during the era that he lived in. The story of his life is inspiring and reminds me that it sometimes only takes one person to change the lives of many others. There is so much each of us can accomplish in this life. This book reinvigorates me to live life to the fullest!

In all our years in the field of education of the blind we have never seen or reviewed such a well researched and informative book on the life and times of Louis Braille. It is both a beautifully illustrated coffee table book, worthy of pride of place in libraries, schools, homes and places of public information. It brings to light the little known facts of the genius of the blind Frenchman as never before. Yet it is more that just that, as it shows in graphic form by the using of illustrations, drawing, pictures and postage stamps the journey of the blind from "darkness into light". The world of the blind as seen by the sighted, prior to and after Louis Braille in the 19th century gave the blind the only system by which they could and can become fully literate. Braille as Mellor clearly shows in detail, is far more than a system by which the blind and deafblind can read, it is also a universal system for writing in all languages.

This book should be read by all professionals working in the field of disabilities, as well as by those from high school students up and the general public. It is a book for all both sighted and blind. It should be noted that this book was published at the same time both in print and Braille.

Ken Stuckey Retired Research Librarian Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown USA
Gunilla Stenberg Stuckey Retired Director Tomteboda Resource Centre, Stockholm Sweden

This wasn't my first book of Louis Braille's story, but was one of the bests that I read. Margaret Davidson writes very, very well. The facts are very precised. If you are looking for a good book with the story of the inventor of braille system, this is one of the bests. It's incredible how a 12 year old boy follow is goal: create a code that permit to blind people like him read books. If Pierri Henri writes in English, certainly that he will liked to write this one.

For me here is the best sentence of the book:

"(...) in the entire school library there were just fourteen books. Just fourteen! (...) Without books we can never really learn!" Louis Braille with 10 years old when arrived at the Royal Institute of Blind Youth. This was the ambition of the younger Louis: Books!!