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 enlarge | Author: Sarah Miller
Publisher: Atheneum
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $10.00
You Save: $6.99 (41%)
New (34) Used (16) from $4.70
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 137646
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 1416925422
EAN: 9781416925422
ASIN: 1416925422
Publication Date: July 10, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-10 of 10 | | « PREV | | |
A gem of a book August 2, 2007
This book is the story of Helen Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan, as she struggles to teach a girl who can neither hear, see, nor speak. She displays incredible strength and determination as she sacrifices herself completely for Helen. Almost everyone knows this story, but hearing it from the teacher's point of view is a really unique insight. This delightful debut novel will keep you rooting for teacher and student right up until its triumphant ending.
"In my heart I know what's right for Helen: obedience, love, and language. Come what may and hell to pay, I'll find a way to give her all three."
Kids opinion August 1, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I'm an eleven year old boy. I really liked this book. I thought this story was very interesting. I liked the way it was written from Annie Sullivan's point of view.
As the mother of the reviewer, I was pleased when my son spontaneously relayed a fact that he had learned from the book while eating dinner one evening. He enjoyed reading the book and I am pleased that he learned something at the same time.
Enveloping! July 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Miss Spitfire is a fantastic novel. It is marketed as a young adult novel, but I am 25 years old and have enjoyed reading it immensely, due to Miss Miller's ability to express in writing the emotions, suffering, and determination that Anne Sullivan must have felt so many years ago. I look forward to the next novel from this young author.
Entrancing! July 18, 2007
This book had me from the first page. I absolutely could not put it down. It goes far beyond The Miracle Worker.
So well written and engaging. I recommend it to teachers who would like their students to have an understanding both of the impact a disability can have and the historical attitudes about disability. The poignancy of the ending had me in tears.
Life Lessons and Determination July 5, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Teachers strive to inspire their students to do their best, to expand their horizons, and to challenge themselves. Annie Sullivan's life was one challenge after another, and her first teaching charge was no exception. Helen Keller was blind, deaf, and completely wild when Annie first came into her life. Little did either of them know then that they would have a breakthrough within weeks of Annie's arrival, and that they would remain friends for the rest of Annie's life.
MISS SPITFIRE: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller covers approximately the first month of Annie's work with Helen. Each chapter notes the date and contains a line or two from an actual letter written by Annie at that time. Annie narrates the story in first person as she comes to know Helen and her family. She speaks up when Helen's parents treat their daughter too gently, all the while wishing her own parents had been there for her. Meeting Helen's older brothers brings up both fond and sad memories of her beloved brother Jimmy. Annie begins teaching Helen to spell by tracing letters in her palm and insisting that Helen spell out what she does and what she wants.
Sarah Miller's debut shows a great deal of compassion. You can tell that the author has done her research, and that she wanted to stay true to the real events in Annie's life. The relationship between Annie and Helen was rocky at the start, and though Miller handles it with care, she never idealizes it nor sensationalizes it. She isn't afraid to show Annie physically struggling with her wild student, who bruised her teacher with her tiny yet powerful fists.
The novel is fueled by truth, determination, and introspection. This is not only about teaching Helen how to spell "doll" or "water," but about reaching her. Annie wanted Helen to really know what she was spelling - to honestly communicate - to fully understand.
Recommended for ages 8 and up - for all ages, really.
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