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Sarah Miller began writing her first novel at 10 years old, and has spent half her life working in libraries and bookstores. She is the author of Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller, which was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and nominated for numerous state award lists. Sarah lives in Michigan with her family. Visit her online at sarahmillerbooks.com.
Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller
by Sarah Miller
eBook
$7.99
-
ISBN-13:
9781442407244
- Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
- Publication date: 10/27/2009
- Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 240
- Sales rank: 206,187
- File size: 3 MB
- Age Range: 10 - 12 Years
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Annie Sullivan was little more than a half-blind orphan with a fiery tongue when she arrived at Ivy Green in 1887. Desperate for work, she’d taken on a seemingly impossible job—teaching a child who was deaf, blind, and as ferocious as any wild animal. But if anyone was a match for Helen Keller, it was the girl who’d been nicknamed Miss Spitfire. In her efforts to reach Helen’s mind, Annie lost teeth to the girl’s raging blows, but she never lost faith in her ability to triumph. Told in first person, Annie Sullivan’s past, her brazen determination, and her connection to the girl who would call her Teacher are vividly depicted in this powerful novel.
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KLIATT - Janis Flint-Ferguson
This novel retells the events that took place when Annie Sullivan arrived in Alabama from Massachusetts to teach deaf, blind Helen Keller. While it covers much of the same storyline as the play The Miracle Worker, it is also an accessible narrative for YA readers who are unfamiliar with the story of Helen Keller and the remarkable events that led her to become a celebrity in her day. Annie Sullivan is responsible for many of Helen's accomplishments. Despite her own poor eyesight, Annie works tirelessly with young Helen trying to help Helen learn language. But Helen has been treated more like a pet than a child and responds violently at times. Relying on the methods of Dr. Howe of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, Annie finally gets the Kellers to allow her to live in a small cottage on the estate, makes Helen dependent on her, and then uses that dependency in teachable moments. She is supported in her efforts by Helen's aunt, as Helen's own parents are unable to provide the discipline Helen needs to learn manners and to discover how to communicate. Amazing her family, Helen learns both and goes on to college, with Annie at her side. Readers will appreciate Annie's devotion to her pupil and how her tenacity makes a difference in the young girl's life.
VOYA - Amy Fiske
In this debut novel, Miller departs from the known Keller story, imagining instead the emotional terrain of Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan. Readers join Annie as she boards a train bound for Alabama and the Kellers. She spends her journey haunted alternately by horrific childhood memories and anxiety-filled visions of her future. Arriving in Alabama half-mad with grief and fear, she finds a family on the brink of collapse, under the control of a blind and deaf, pint-sized, feral tyrant. Not only must she find a way to reach Helen, but she must also convince the Kellers to treat Helen like a real child rather than an afflicted pet. Helen and her family do not go quietly. Readers follow Annie's emotional struggle to teach Helen obedience first, and then letters and words, and finally understanding. Along the way, the two lost individuals discover self-identity, love, and trust. The friendship will last a lifetime. Drawing on historical documentation, Miller crafts a fascinating work of fiction. Her rendering of Annie is based on letters that Annie wrote to a friend while staying with the Kellers. Also lending authenticity is a lengthy list of sources consulted; however, Miller goes well beyond history. She delves into the hearts and minds of her subjects, creating realistic, believable characters. The Kellers's love mingled with despair, Annie's loneliness and her terror of failure, and Helen's frustration and the overwhelming joy of her breakthrough are palpable. Miller brings history to life.
Children's Literature - Karen Leggett
"How am I to teach Helen what language is, when words themselves have no scent, taste, or texture?" Anne Sullivan worries constantly about how she will teach Helen Keller and whether she can. This novel is a rare glimpse into the thoughts and emotions that Sullivan—Miss Spitfire—might have had as she approached the challenge that would earn her the name "miracle worker." Written as a first person account, this journal-style novel tells us about Sullivan's abusive father, the close relationship she had with her invalid brother Jimmie, and the horrible years they spent together in a poorhouse. There are frequent flashbacks to the events of her childhood, which is often confusing, but they do help explain Sullivan's yearning for Helen's affection, and especially her touch. It seems to take a very long time for the novel to reach the familiar point of Helen's "sudden" understanding of words and their meaning, and there are many pages of anger and struggle. Yet overall this is an innovative way to approach an alternative view of the Helen Keller story.
School Library Journal
Gr 5-9Filled with the tension, animosity, and determination that Annie Sullivan felt upon meeting Helen Keller, this novel portrays that most important month in their relationship, March 1887. The story is told through Annie's voice, and it begins as she travels by train from Boston to Tuscumbia, AL. The child she has been hired to teach is both deaf and blind, and there is only one previous case study that suggests that the six-year-old will ever be able to learn. As the story unfolds, readers see that strong-willed Annie is just the person to take on this formidable task. Her anger at Helen for her contrary ways is matched only by her disgust at the Kellers for allowing the girl to control everyone in the family and have her way. The incident during which Helen breaks a tooth in Annie's mouth with a well-placed punch is vividly recounted, and readers have great sympathy for the teacher's desire to get even. In spite of her own temper, the fierce love Annie feels, almost immediately, for Helen, is evident throughout. Although the flashbacks describing Annie's life before she arrived at the Kellers' interferes at times with the story's momentum, this excellent novel is compelling reading even for those familiar with the Keller/Sullivan experience. Children encountering them for the first time will feel an overwhelming sense of wonder and delight when Annie helps Helen make a communication breakthrough.
—Wendy Smith-D'ArezzoCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Why is the story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan so enthralling? Is it that they found success in the seemingly impossible struggle shared at some level by all young people: to articulate one's true thoughts and feelings? If so, then debut author Miller nails her audience with this fictionalized account of the first few weeks of Helen and Annie's acquaintance, leading up to the breakthrough scene at the water pump. Details drawn from Annie's letters and Helen's autobiography are fleshed out engagingly in the first-person voice of Miller's imagined Annie, the young "spitfire" who overcomes obstacles no matter the power of the adults in her life. Acknowledging the presumption of writing someone else's story, Miller provides resources to allow the reader to seek out more. Should young readers bother with fiction in this case, when so much biographical material is available? It's hard to argue with Miller, as she sticks so close to the documented story while giving readers a good dose of the melodrama that makes it so appealing, a craving for more and the direction to find it. (author's note, photographs, chronology, bibliography) (Fiction. 9-14)
From the Publisher
"This moving story—for all ages—is about how Anne an underprivileged young woman awoke Helen Keller, the most famous woman of her time, to life and learning. Miss Spitfire is high drama about how language unlocks the world.” —Richard Peck, author of the Newbery Medal–winner A Year Down Yonder
* "Miller's accomplished debut imagines Annie Sullivan's first experiences with her famous pupil, Helen Keller… encouraging readers to think about the small miracles of connection they can accomplish with words every day."
—Booklist, starred review
"Details drawn from Annie's letters and Helen's autobiography are fleshed out engagingly in the first-person voice of Miller's imagined Annie, the young "spitfire" who overcomes obstacles no matter the power of the adults in her life."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Children encountering [Annie and Helen] for the first time will feel an overwhelming sense of wonder and delight when Annie helps Helen make a communication breakthrough. School Library Journal Readers will appreciate Annie's devotion to her pupil and how her tenacity makes a difference in the young girl's life."
—Kliatt
"Miller brings history to life."
—Voya