Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller

A silhouette of a child in a dark room opens this latest in the exemplary line of comic strip biographies from the Center for Cartoon Studies. Cartoonist Lambert employs these silhouettes to give a sense of how Keller's world might have felt from the inside--dim, bewildering, rageful, and, eventually, enlightened by language. Sullivan's own words convey her determination to teach Helen. Bib.

Focuses on the early history and education of Helen’s teacher, Annie Sullivan, an aspect of the Helen Keller story not frequently told. Joseph Lambert’s illustrations not only provide accurately rendered visual details, they also represent Helen’s perception of the world in stunning, abstract ways. By subtly emphasizing the similarities in Annie’s and Helen’s personalities and in their struggles, their relationship is shown to be more fraught and intense than that between an average teacher and pupil.

A gray silhouette of a child in a dark room opens this latest addition to the exemplary line of comic strip biographies from the Center for Cartoon Studies. Cartoonist Lambert employs three pages of such panels to show the child, Helen Keller, eating with her hands while a pair of tentacle-like blue arms forces her into a chair, trying -- and failing -- to persuade her to use a spoon. At intervals throughout the book, the silhouettes return to give a sense of how Helen’s world might have felt from the inside -- dim, bewildering, rageful, and, eventually, enlightened by language. Annie Sullivan’s own words convey her determination to teach Helen despite obstacles such as Helen’s coddling parents. Lambert shifts back and forth in time, sometimes disorientingly, to depict episodes from Sullivan’s hardscrabble past -- as an orphan at the Tewksbury Almhouse and then a charity student at the Perkins Institution for the Blind (as it was called in 1880). The book continues through Annie and Helen’s 1891 stay at Perkins, ending abruptly (and oddly) with Helen’s dismissal for unintentional plagiarism. Still, though most readers will be familiar with the historic moment at the water pump when Sullivan’s lessons suddenly take hold, it’s hard not to be moved by Lambert’s depiction of the scene, from outside and in. On the outside it’s a brilliant sunny day, while inside Helen, though still dark, the