Boom #3- Graphic Novels

Title: Annie Sullivan and The Trials of Helen Keller 

Author and Illustrator: Joseph Lambert 

Publisher: Disney and Hyperion Books 

Publication Date: 2012

ISBN #: 978-142311336-2

Brief Summary: This is a very interesting graphic novel about Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. The book describes the struggles and accomplishments that they shared together. Some of those struggles and accomplishments included learning to sign, learning to eat with utensils and learning that objects had names and meaning. 

Evaluation: This is one of the most interestingly formatted books I have ever read. The text is not just formatted in speech bubbles like most graphic novels. Instead, the author used the illustrations to help depict what was going on in a very creative way. Sometimes the speech bubble was placed in Helen Keller's head to symbolize what she was thinking, words were placed on objects around the home after Helen learned the names for those objects, and the book begins a drawing of young Helen as a shadow figure in total darkness. This portrayed how her life must have felt before she met Annie. The book does not spare the struggles or negative parts of Annie and Helen's time together. The illustrations showed their body language when arguing or fighting with each other so that readers could get an idea of just how frustrating this process must have been.  At times the text was hard to follow, there was a lot going on on each page and it made me feel scattered while reading. However, if small sections of this book were assigned at a time for children to read while learning about Helen Keller, I think it could be an effective and fun learning tool. This would not be the kind of book that the teacher reads out loud in front of the class because the font and pictures were so small that it would be hard for students to read/see, and their attention would easily drift elsewhere. 

Rating: 3 out of 5 signing letters.