TITLE: Who Was Louis Braille?
AUTHOR: Margaret Frith
PUBLISHER: Grosset
& Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Group
COPYRIGHT DATE: 2014
AGE RANGE: Grades
3-5
LEXILE LEVEL: 780L
ACCELERATED READER:
1.0
SUMMARY:
Louis Braille was born
in France in 1809. When he was born, he could see. When he was
three years old, he was keeping his dad company in his dad’s workshop.
His father made leather saddles and harnesses for horses. His father
stepped outside for a minute and curious little Louis picked up one of his
father’s sharp tools. He tried to copy what his father was doing, but
ended up poking the tool in his own eye. Both of his eyes became infected
causing Louis to become blind at the age of four years old.
At first, Louis attended his local school. He would listen to the teacher
and he would rely on his memory to learn, but the minute the other school
children were told to get out a book, Louis was left out. There were no
books for him to read. After a time, Louis was very fortunate to be able
to attend the Royal Institute for the Blind—the only school of its kind in
France. Finally, Louis might learn to read! Reading for the blind
at that time meant that entire letters were raised above the page, causing the
reader to use a few fingers to feel the shape of the letter. It was
slow-going. Louis kept thinking, “There must be a better way.”
Eventually, he found one. It was based off of “night-reading” that
soldiers would use to decipher messages in the dark—because, a soldier who
stood by a light to read was making a target out of himself. Night
reading involved raised dashes and dots, not full letters.
That was Louis’
breakthrough: raised dots! He translated the alphabet using raised
dots—that way, people of different languages could use this same system—which
later became known as the “Braille” system of reading.
CRITIQUE:
A great lesson in history and in describing how a blind person
could read and write quicker by not having to rely on feeling the full
letter.
REVIEW:
I was unable to find any professional
reviews (such as Kirkus or Publishers Weekly) on this title which is part of a
series of similarly-titled books offered by Apple Books. I was only able to find customer reviews of
the book.
Customers who purchased this book on
Amazon.com gave it 4.5/5.0 stars overall.
The comments were mostly from parents of children who read the
book. One comment from a parent read, “Love
these easy to read chapter books, especially biographies. These books are great
for reading with unmotivated readers, for they are somewhat shorter than
regular chapter books and they have narrowed down the information so as to be
easier to read. (Amazon, 2015)
AWARDS:
2018 Bluestem Nominee
(Illinois)
RELATED MATERIAL:
For more books in the Who
Was-? series, check out the following titles:
Brailler, J. (2002). Who
Was Albert Einstein?. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap.
Albert Einstein was a scientist in the field of physics. He was a genius, but that did not mean he
excelled in school.
Fraden, D. B. (2002). Who
Was Ben Franklin?. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap.
American Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, was a very
busy man. He was a diplomat for America
in France. He was a signor of the Declaration
of Independence, and he was an inventor.
Franklin invented many things: bifocals,
swimming fins, and the Franklin stove, to name a few.
Thompson, G. (2003). Who
Was Helen Keller?. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap.
Like Louis Braille, Helen Keller was born with sight. They both lost their ability to see in their
early childhood. Braille lost his sight
as a result of an infection caused by an injury to his eye. Keller lost her ability to see due to a
childhood illness, which left her deaf as well.
Both Keller and Braille had to rely on their sense of touch to learn to
read. Braille created a system of
reading for the blind that would later aid young Keller in her ability to learn
to read.
REFERENCES:
Amazon.com. (2015, July 27). Who Was Louis Braille?
Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Who-Louis-Braille-Margaret-Frith/dp/0448479036
I am the visually impaired parent of visually impaired children, so books such as this are very appealing to me on a personal level. It is important for all children, including those with disabilities, to have models to read about and look up to, to have heroes to relate to, and to know they are not alone.
ReplyDeleteLouis Braille did an amazing thing. He gave those who are blind a way to read independently. My 8 year old son is currently working on learning Braille, and let me tell you, it is not easy! I cannot imagine how difficult it was to create it. I learned in my reading that Louis Braille used the framework of night writing that was employed by French soldiers to read in the dark and not be detected by their enemies.
I think including titles both about and written by notable people with disabilities is so important to establishing an inclusive library.
The Who is? series includes a book on musician Stevie Wonder,
https://www.amazon.com/Who-Stevie-Wonder-Was/dp/0448488582/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511842903&sr=1-5&keywords=stevie+wonder
and a children's book about notable autistic engineer Temple Grandin would be a great title to have on your shelves as well
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Thought-Pictures-Scientists/dp/1943147302/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511842928&sr=1-3-fkmr2&keywords=kids+book+about+temple+grandin