Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller

As an adult, I found this a delightful window into the world of Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher. The author took the known writings of Anne and details of her background and wrote the story of her early work with Helen in Anne’s voice. Her perspective is intriguing and adds an important component of the story: what in Anne’s background helped give her the extraordinary strength and determination to break through to Helen? (In addition to her being Irish, that is.)

The story not only adds realistic details: Anne’s doubts, her fear of failure, and her strong emotions, negative and positive, toward Helen, but it meets the vital criteria of telling a good story. No doubt this book will add an extra layer of complexity to the Helen Keller story.

Yet… I refrain from giving this a full safety pass for tweens. My teenager and I read it, liked it bunches, and had a productive discussion about the romanticized, rather ideal version of Helen’s story that we get from many books about Helen Keller’s story versus how it might really have been. We discussed that when an author takes on the voice of a character, you can gather historically true detail but it is only one perspective and not the final say. Tweens often think that what they read is how it is or was.

Anne was Catholic, and there is an anecdote about a kind priest who helped her receive eye surgery at a young age. I found it of note that while Anne was Catholic, there was never a moment in which she turned to God or relied on any help other than her own self. In fact, it comes through that God’s influence in her work is either incidental or unnoticed. I don’t know if that is accurate to Anne or just a modern interpretation. But since the story was referenced through Anne’s own writings, perhaps Anne wrote nothing of a personal faith.

Though I’m not going to articulate it here, I think there is an argument to be made for the romanticized version of the Helen Keller story to be told at a young age. I would not assume that this version is the best for tweens.

There is a strong tone here that is very different from the typical child’s version of the story, and I think parents should consider the age and maturity of their tween carefully. I tend to lean to the cautious side because I think our pop culture has lost its judgment and will toss too much information at too young an age. Reading the first chapter or two should be plenty to let you know if this book is a fit for your tween.

The voice of Anne can be quite negative and strongly so at times. The details of Anne’s background weren’t known even by Helen until much later in life. She lived in an orphanage, her father was a drunk, her mother died when Anne was young, and her brother died in the orphanage. There is a reference to whores a couple of times in order to emphasize the rough nature of the place she grew up in. The details given are appropriate to the age group it’s written for; just be aware that there is a lot more in this story to absorb than the usual Helen Keller details. And it is not told in a Pollyanna style. It’s worth a preview for the young tweens.

SAFETY RATING: 2 Flags