Helen Keller's Best Friend Belle

PreS-Gr 2—Keller was a lifelong dog lover. When an illness at a young age left her blind and deaf, and feeling alone and afraid, she found solace in the family pets. Belle, an Irish setter, became her closest companionas she struggled to communicate and discovered the world around her through her lessons with Anne Sullivan. Examples of Sullivan's teachings are supported by individual placards representing each letter/sign in the words Helen learned. As her world opened up, the warm illustrations become suffused with light. The complete alphabet in Braille is inserted in the middle of the narrative and displayed on the endpapers in sign language. This brief introduction to Keller's early life concludes with a note on her love of dogs and a brief biography of her later years. A pleasant companion to David A. Adler's A Picture Book of Helen Keller (Holiday House, 1990).—Janet Weber, Tigard Public Library, OR