Reviews

Gr 5-9-In the spring of 1887, Anne Sullivan, a half-blind orphan, traveled to Alabama to teach Helen Keller, a deaf, blind, and mute six-year-old. Sarah Miller's debut novel (Atheneum, 2007) brings history to life by focusing on the first few weeks of Helen and Anne's relationship. She takes the familiar Miracle Worker story and sets her telling apart by weaving in flashbacks of the little known background of Anne Sullivan. In Alabama, Anne must battle a spoiled, willful Helen and her overindulgent parents. The teacher quickly recognizes that Helen is very bright, and eventually succeeds in teaching her pupil to communicate. Narrator Terry Donnelly uses a slight Irish brogue and clear, slow enunciation to good effect. Great characterization and poetic language make this a marvelous historical fiction offering.-Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

"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"