Books like Helen Keller

She wrote this at age 22 .Her prose frequently almost becomes poetry . She was close persoanl fiends with Alexander Graham Bell apparently as a child she had an inner love , joy and intelligence that attracted the friendship of Bell and many other great teachers with whom she came in contact . The story of her childhood was a fascinating and strengthening. She was obviously very intelligent happy child with a very positive attitude and keen will to learn. .It was amazing how much she could intuit about her outer world even before she was to communicate with others. She had pets . Enjoyed flowers . Sunshine . WATER ! WATER! WATER! In this GIF actress Patty Duke as Hellen Keller is having the epiphany the cool wet substance flowing on her hand is called “WATER” !!!!Young deaf and blind Helen learns that the letters Ann Sullivan had been tracing onto her palms and that she had been tracing on Ann's palms was not just a game it was LANGUAGE !!!!!! I thought it was cosmic when Helen understood what the word LOVE meant Helen: I no longer could conceive of Ann as a person who existed separate from myself . It felt like the two of us were one. Our foot steps were one . We left one set of foot prints and cast one shadow Helen : " I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the word “love.” THIS WAS BEFORE I KNEW MANY WORDS. I had found a few early violets in the garden and brought them to my teacher. She tried to kiss me, but at that time I did not like to have anyone kiss me except my mother. Ann: puts her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, “I love Helen.”Helen : I spelled back “What is love?” ( Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it.) I smelled the violets in her hand and asked a question which meant, “Is love the sweetness of flowers?”Ann : “No,” Helen : The warm sun was shining pointing in the direction from which the heat came.I spelled ,“Is this not love?” Ann: puts Helen hands on her cheeks and shakes her head, Helen: I was greatly puzzled and disappointed. I concentrated my attention on what Ann meant by"I LOVE HELEN " and tried to think .... Ann touched my forehead and spelled on my palm with decided emphasis, “Think ! ”In a flash I KNEW that the word "THINK " was the name of the process that was going on in my head. This was my first conscious perception of AN ABSTRACT IDEA. For a long time I was still— trying to find a meaning for “love” in the light of this new idea. The sun had been under a cloud all day and THERE HAD BEEN BRIEF REFRESHING SHOWERS , but suddenly the sun broke forth in all its southern splendor.Again I asked my teacher, “Is this [sun shine] not love?” Ann: Love is like the clouds that sent us the cooling rain [it was hot summer] The clouds are too high to touch But you feel the cool rain they send and know how GLAD the flowers and the HOT THIRSTY earth are to have it . Love is like a rain that pours sweetness into everything and keeps it happy . Without love you would not be happy or want to play.”Helen : The beautiful truth burst upon my mind—I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between MY SPIRIT and THE SPIRITS of others."(end quote) (quantum interconnectedness ) I thought it was brilliant that a child who knew so few words could so completely intuit that love connects all living beings ."( Did Pete Townsend read the above and then write his famous lyrics : "only love can make it rain - a love that yearns to the sky -only love can bring the rain that falls like tears from on high !")???At 16 Hellen aspires to pass entrance exams to get into college and finally she adapts and becomes a scholar learning many languages (french , german , latin , greek etc) Hellen Keller in college reading Shakespeare( brail ) I would have given it 5 stars but then chapter on book reviews got a little tedious...I liked it at the end where she praised Bishop Brooks and quoted him As a young adolescent Helen asked Brooks why there are so many religions Brooks said, “There is one universal religion, Helen—the religion of love. Love your Heavenly Father with your whole heart and soul, love every child of God as much as ever you can, and remember that God is your Father and all people are your brothers and that good is greater than evil; and you have the KEY to heaven .”She said after that she read many books on religion and philosophy but never ever found a greater truth than Bishop Brooks' religion of love Helen is proof that if you are attuned to love no obstacle or defect can keep you from overcoming all barriers to a happiness. Helen read lips by putting her hand on peoples lips as they spoke and answered in her own voice. She is proof that love will find a way (note a few year ago some journalist started publicizing that at 35 Helen had a thwarted romance with Ann's male substitute but that her parents drove him off and say that she was failure in love and unhappy but I believe that if she was unhappy about this it was short lived and she lived as happy a life as if possible in this world right where we are prisoners of this flesh up to her death at 88 when she was reunited with her cherished beloveds as per Brooks principle of universal love and goodness .)