27th June Helen Keller Day

Helen Keller was an American deaf-blind activist, a well-known writer, and a lecturer who advocated for laws to protect and help people with disabilities. 

We celebrate Helen Keller Day as part of Deaf-Blind Awareness Week (the last week in June). The 27th June was Helen Keller's birthday.

Helen Keller was born in Alabama in 1880 and lost her hearing and sight due to a disease before the age of two. At seven, her parents sought help from the Perkins School for The Blind. Anne Sullivan was asked to work with Helen. She was also visually impaired and became nearly as famous as Helen. 

Sullivan used “touch teaching” techniques and her skilled guidance calmed the seemingly uncontrollable Keller. Keller learned how to read and write in Braille thanks to Sullivan’s own experiences that gave her a deeper understanding of her student’s struggles. Keller also used hand signals of the deaf-mute, which she understood by touch. 

The school library has these biographies, but there are many others:

 

13th October World Sight Day

World Sight Day is observed every year on the second Thursday of October, falling on October 13th this year. It was initiated by the Lions Clubs International Foundation during their ‘SightFirstCampaign’ in an effort to spread awareness about preventable blindness and to help people who are visually impaired. 

It’s an international event that provides an opportunity to focus the world’s attention on the importance of good eye health and vision care. This year's World Sight Day will focus on the #LoveYourEyes campaign which aims for 5 million sight tests to be pledged during the month leading up to World Sight Day. 

#LoveYourEyes is about creating awareness that everyone, at some stage in life, will experience an eye health issue. Those of us who can access eye care should prioritise our eye health and support efforts to ensure that everyone enjoys the same access.  

This is a 'big' day, encompassing so many things. Just what do I look for book-wise?

I've divided it up...

1. Eyes. In the section of books about the body we have a few with details about eyes.

• The Eyes by Lorna Hendry

• Little Genius: Eyes  by Kate Lennard and Elvind Gulliksen

• Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World  by Steve Jenkins

• Eye: How it Works by David MacAuley

2. Sight, one of our senses. There used to be a large number of books in our library about the senses because it was a topic preschoolers and kindergarten used to explore. We had separate books on each of the senses, sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste. We now have only two, these

• Sight  by Mandy Suhr and  Mike Gordon

• Seeing by Kimberley Jane Prior

3. Blindness and being blind. There are stories that will help children 'feel' what it means to be blind. Look for these:

• Mole's Sunrise  by Jeanne Willis and Sarah Fox-Davies

• Dan and Diesel by Charlotte Hudson and Lindsey Gardiner

• Looking Out for Sarah  by Glenna Lang

• Lucy's Picture  by Nicola Moon and Alex Ayliffe

• My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay by Cari Best and Vanessa Brantley-Newton

• Yuko-Chan and the Drama Doll: the Adventures of a Blind Girl Who Saves her Village by Sunny Seki

• The Black Book of Colours by Menina Cottin and Rosana Faria

• The Seeing Stick  by Jane Yolen and Daniela Terrazzini

• Footsteps Through the Fog  by Margaret Mary and Gavin Bishop

• The Sound of Colors by Jimmy Liao

• My City Speaks by Darren LeBeuf and Ashley Barron

       

4. Going for an Eye Test

• Topsy and Tim: Have their Eyes Tested by Jean Adamson

• Peppa Pig: Peppa's First Glasses 

• Optometrists and What they Do  by Liesbet Slegers

• I Really Absolutely Have to Have Glasses by Lauren Child

        

5. Wearing glasses (spectacles)

• Arthur's Eyes  by Marc Brown

• Specs for Rex by Yasmeen Ismail

• Ava's Spectacular Spectacles by Alex Rex and Angela Perrini

• Princess Peepers by Pam Calvert and Tuesday Mourning

• Eureka! Glasses by Lori Haskins Houran and John Jovan

• Calvin, Look Out! by Jennifer Berne and Keith Bendis

        

6. Eye interventions (including amblyopia, double vision and lazy eye)

• The Patch by Justina Chen Headley and Mitch Vane

• Jacob's Eye Patch  by  Beth Kobliner Shaw and Jacob Shaw and Jules Feiffer

• The Pirate of Kindergarten by George Ella Lyon and Lynne Avril

• My Travellin' Eye by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

  

7. Braille (includes books about Braille and books that include Braille)

• Private and Confidential  by Marion Ripley and Colin Blackhouse

• Off to the Park! by Stephen Cheetham

8. Biographies of people who have had an impact on sight interventions

• Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant and Boris Kulikov

• Helen Keller  by Kitson Jazynka

• Helen Keller by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

• The Flying Optometrist by Joanne Anderson and Karen Erasmus

• The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr Patricia Bath by Julia Finley Mosca and Daniel Rieley

• Stevie Wonder  by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

• The Amazing Bike Ride by Lorin Nicholson and David Emerson

• Keep Your Ear on the Ball by Genevieve Petrillo and Lea Lyon

 

3rd December International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD)

International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) is held on 3rd December each year.  The UN give it a theme, which this year  is ‘Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world’.

School with students has finished for me this year, but this is a day well worth sharing with classes and picture books. Many disabilities have a day of their own, but here is a smattering of books worthy of a display in your school library. I have listed books that are in my library, but you will find others, I'm sure.

Books with a focus on children who have mobility difficulties or wheelchairs.

• What Happened to You?  by James Catchpole & Karen George

• Hello Goodbye Dog by Maria Gianferrari & Patrice Barton

• Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis & Tony Ross

• I Will Dance by Nancy Bo Flood & Julianna Swaney         

• Woodpecker Girl  by I-Tsun Chiang & Chingyen Liu  

• King For a Day  by Rukhsana Khan & Christiane Kroemer 

• Seal Surfer  by Michael Foreman 

• Arabella  by Wendy Orr & Kim Gamble (OOP but probably in the school library)

• All the Way to the Top  by Annette Bay Pimental & Nabi H. Ali (a biographical episode from the life of Jennifer Keelan)

Books with a focus on children who are dealing with sight issues 

• The Patch  by Justina Chen Headley & Mitch Vane

• Lucy's Picture by Nicola Moon & Alex Ayliffe (OOP Lucy's grandfather is blind)

• The Black Book of Colours  by  Menena Cottin & Rosana Faria 

• Six Dots:  A Story of a Young Louis Braille  by Jen Bryant & Boris Kulikov

• Annie and Helen by Deborah Hopkinson & Raul Colon

• Helen's Big World by Doreen Rappaport & Matt Tavares 

• Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll  by Sunny Seki

• Looking Out for Sarah  by Glenna Lang

Books with a focus on children dealing with deafness

• Can Bears Ski?  by Raymond Antrobus & Polly Dunbar

• Freddie and the Fairy by Julia Donaldson & Karen George 

• Hands and Hearts  by Donna Jo Napoli & Amy Bates

•  Moses Goes to a Concert  by Isaac Millman

• The Boy in the Jam Jar  by Joyce Dunbar & John Shelley

• Boy by Phil Cummings & Shane deVries

• The Race by Christobel Mattingley (OOP but probably in the school library)

Of course there are other disabilities, but this is a good start and enough for a display!

 

January Braille Literacy Awareness Month

January is Braille Literacy Awareness Month. It is designated as such in honour of  Louis Braille who originally developed the Braille code that enables blind people to read.  Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809. 

Literacy plays such a big role in both my private and working life that I would be devastated to lose the ability to read or write. To be born blind and not be able to read is something I only get to contemplate through reading. It has fascinated me though as a topic for picture books and I have shared many wonderful books with the young children I teach.  My Year 2 students are fascinated by the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller and these two books, Helen's Big World  by Doreen Rappaport and Annie and Helen  by Deborah Hopkinson are borrowed often. Because of this I purchased Six Dots, the picture book about Braille by Jen Bryant and it too has been popular. Up until this beautiful book was published anything my students gleaned about Braille came from some crusty old readers or from the internet. We do however have a couple of books which feature Braille.
Look for:
• The Black Book of Colours  by Menena Cottin
This book has remarkable illustrations done with raised lines. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers.

• Private and Confidential by Marion Ripley
Here Laura learns Braille so that she can send her blind penpal a letter.