Helen Keller Revisited--An Interview with Deborah Hopkinson and Doreen Rappaport

March 10 - Today's post provided by Mary Ann Scheuer

I have admired Helen Keller since I was a young girl. And so I was thrilled to read both Doreen Rappaport’s and Deborah Hopkinson’s new picture book biographies: Annie and Helen AND Helen's Big World. I especially love the way these two books complement each other, helping young readers get a fuller picture of this remarkable woman.

Annie and Helen

by Deborah Hopkinson

illustrated by Raul Colon

Schwartz & Wade, 2012

available at your local library

Helen’s Big World

by Doreen Rappaport

illustrated by Matt Tavares

Hyperion, 2012

available at your local library

I have invited Doreen and Deborah to each answer questions about their writing process. I so appreciate their thoughtful answers, as we get a glimpse into their journey writing these wonderful books.

Mary Ann Scheuer: What inspired you to write a biography about Helen Keller?

Deborah Hopkinson

Deborah Hopkinson: I was inspired to write about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller after reading a newspaper article about a newly discovered early photograph of the two together.  I began researching Annie Sullivan first, since she spent part of her childhood in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, where I lived until I was four.  As the story developed, I found myself drawn to the first few months of Annie’s experience teaching Helen.

Doreen Rappaport

Doreen Rappaport: All of my books are about the same thing—empowerment.  Helen Keller’s life is the story of empowerment and possibility, a journey from powerlessness to power, from helplessness into helpfulness, from ignorance to knowledge.  When I have visited schools, children inevitably ask me, “When are you going to do a biography about Helen Keller?”  I realized that kids react emotionally to her struggles and conquering of her extraordinary disabilities. Her life confirms for them that even under the most difficult circumstances people can triumph.  I realized it was time to do a book on her.

MS: It's fascinating that your picture books on Helen Keller take such different approaches. How did you decide to focus and organize your work on Helen Keller? What prompted the way you organized/focused your stories?

Deborah Hopkinson: Although the moment at the water pump is now so well-known, actually it’s what happened in the months after that I found most fascinating.  It seemed natural to use the details in Annie Sullivan’s letters in my story.  I think we forget how young Annie herself was when she first took on this job – she was just twenty-one years old during that spring of 1887.

Annie’s own excitement and Helen’s amazing progress are palpable in her correspondence. Annie herself had a tremendously difficult and traumatic childhood, losing her mother, brother, and, for a time, her sight.  She had just graduated from the Perkins School for the Blind when she traveled to Alabama to take a job teaching Helen in 1887.

The centennial edition of Keller’s The Story of My Life includes Annie Sullivan’s letters to Mrs. Sophie Hopkins, her friend and former house mother at Perkins School for the Blind.  Once I read those, I knew that they would serve as the scaffolding for my book.

Doreen Rappaport: I love how Deborah concentrated on the relationship between Annie and Helen. She gave kids a close-up of great teaching and the equal responsibility of a student to empower him/herself. Of course I included their relationship in my book but as I was reading about her, I realized the scope of her latter accomplishments and thought it important for kids to learn about her adult life and work, and so I decided to cover her life from birth until death.  Helen Keller was controversial; she spoke up for what she believed in even when it was unpopular, and she connected with and promoted causes way beyond her commitment to bettering the life of other disabled people.

MS: What is something surprising that you discovered about Helen Keller during your research?

Deborah Hopkinson: I think I came away with a renewed appreciation of her incredible drive to learn. That she could go from not having language to being able to write a letter in four months is a testament to her dedication and brilliant mind.

Doreen Rappaport: I never knew she starred in a movie, which turned out to be a painful experience for her.  I never knew she was on the vaudeville circuit.  She needed money so she performed. She was criticized for it, but it gave her a sense of independence, and for someone who had to depend on others a lot of the time, this must have felt wonderful.  I found questions and answers from these vaudeville performances and realized she had a wonderful sense of humor. 

MS: What primary source was particularly useful for your research?

Deborah Hopkinson: Without a doubt, Annie’s letters themselves were my inspiration.  We see so clearly her excitement as her pupil blossoms and begins grasping language, making progress every day. 

It’s not very different from a parent exclaiming over the new words his or his toddler is learning.  In fact, we can give some credit to Helen’s little sister, Mildred, as the inspiration for Annie’s methods.  Annie realized that people talk naturally to a toddler, using full sentences, whether the child has learned each word or not.  And that’s exactly what she began to do as she taught Helen.  

Doreen Rappaport: Her many biographies and speeches were all valuable and seeing photographs of her and a clip from a movie that she is in, which you canfind on my website, also made me feel close to her feelings, struggles, and spirit.

MS: How do you try to share this sense of primary sources with children? (photographs, quotes, etc.)

Deborah Hopkinson: The book is actually organized into sections, or mini-chapters around quotations from Annie’s letters.  The story can be read without delving into them, but I think if it is shared with a child by a parent, the adult can point out how, in fact, we are telling two people’s stories here.  It meant almost as much to Annie to be successful as a teacher as it did for Helen to be able to enter this amazing new world of communication and language. 

I’m glad we were able to include those evocative historical photos as well. I am grateful to the staff at Perkins for reading the manuscript and making the available the photos on the endpapers.

Doreen Rappaport: My biography is punctuated with quotes from her autobiographies and letters, etc. because it gives children a chance to hear “her voice”. Including her words reinforces the importance of primary sources.  I also included letters she wrote as a young girl, and my wonderful illustrator, Matt Tavares, reproduced the Braille with its appropriate objects, showing how Helen learned to read Braille. 

Editor's Note:
Mary Ann Scheuer is the librarian at Emerson School, a public elementary K-5 school in Berkeley, CA. She created Great Kid Books, as a site to help parents find books for their children, ages 4 - 14. Mary Ann is also the Cybils Book App award coordinator, and the co-chair of author events at 2013 AASL National Conference. Come say hello on Twitter @MaryAnnScheuer!

Annie Sullivan: Miss Spitfire

March 4:  Today's post provided by the Fourth Musketeer

Annie Sullivan

When I was a little girl in the 1960's, there were very few biographies for young people of women throughout history.  One of the few women that I remember reading about was Helen Keller, and I even remember my father saying that she had visited his high school in Minneapolis.  Her beloved teacher, Annie Sullivan, was almost equally famous, and has been selected as one of six honorees of the National Women's History Project in 2012, in recognition of her pioneering leadership in education.  After learning of her receiving this honor, I was curious to learn more about Annie Sullivan, and how she has been depicted in books for young people.

Of course Annie Sullivan is featured in all of the many books about Helen Keller, her famous pupil, but there are several excellent books in print that concentrate on Sullivan herself, with several more about to be released later this year.  

An excellent choice in historical fiction about Sullivan is Miss Spitfire:  Reaching Helen Keller, by Sarah Miller (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007).  Told in the first person, this novel brings Annie Sullivan's feisty character and her story to life for today's readers.  This book received a long list of well-deserved accolades, and is a terrific introduction to Annie Sullivan and her famous pupil.

For those readers looking for nonfiction, perhaps for a biographical report, you couldn't do better than Helen's Eyes:  A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's Teacher  by Marfe Ferguson Delano (National Geographic Children's Books, 2008).  Abundantly illustrated with period photographs of Sullivan and Sullivan together with her pupil, this handsome volume provides a comprehensive look at Sullivan's often difficult life.

Annie Sullivan came from a completely different sort of background from Helen Keller, who was from a wealthy family.  Sullivan's parents were poor Irish immigrants, and her father was a drunk who beat Annie.  She began to go blind at around five years old from trachoma, and when her mother died, she and her brother were sent to live in the poorhouse, where her brother died soon after.

When Annie was 14, she got a chance to go to a school for blind children, the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston.  She didn't fit in well with the other children, most of whom came from affluent or middle-class families, and soon was named "Miss Spitfire" for her sharp tongue and fiery temper. She had a brilliant mind, however, and graduated number one in her class.  She nonetheless wondered how she would earn her living.

When the Perkins headmaster received a letter from a gentleman in Alabama in search of a governess for his deaf and blind daughter, Annie Sullivan took the position, which paid a generous $25 per month.  Her breakthrough teaching methods transformed the Keller's wild, willful child into a lovely young girl who inspired people all over the world.   The biography follows Annie's life up until her death in 1936 at the age of 70, with Helen Keller holding her hand.  The book includes an afterword, a timeline, further resources, source notes, and an index.  

Although there are over 100 children's biographies of Helen Keller that come up from a quick search on Amazon, the choices on Annie Sullivan are much more limited.  However, two new notable books on the subject are due to come out later this year.  I am particularly looking forward to a  new picture book, Annie and Helen, by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Raul Colon (Schwartz & Wade, September, 2012). The publisher notes that the book focuses on the relationship between Helen and her teacher, interspersed with excerpts of Annie's letters home, written as she struggled with her wild pupil; the book features "lyrical text and exquisite art."  Given the quality of prior work of both the author and the illustrator, I am confident this will be a "must have" for school and public library collections.  

Another soon-to-be-published book on Annie Sullivan is Joseph Lambert's Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller which comes out at the end of March from Hyperion Books.  Written by an alumnus of the Center for Cartoon Studies, it's a full-color graphic novel rendition of Annie Sullivan's life; although I haven't had a chance to see the book, it's received a starred review from Booklist, and Kirkus calls the book "a visual stunner."    Sounds like another one for my TBR list!

Editor's Note:  


The Fourth Musketeer, aka Margo Tanenbaum, recently finished her master's in library science and hopes to find a full-time position as a children's librarian.  She lives in Claremont, California, with her family and her miniature poodle.