BIBLIOGRAPHY
Freedman, Russell. 1997. OUT OF DARKNESS: THE STORY OF LOUIS BRAILLE. illus. by Kate Kiesler. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780395968888.

PLOT SUMMARY
A detailed account of the life of Louis Braille who invented a method of reading for the visually impaired. This biography portrays Braille as a young boy who would not let blindness get in his way of living. His curiosity to learn and help others led to years of trial and error to develop the system still used today.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Freedman manages to tell a detailed story while holding the reader's interest. He begins in the early 1800s with the accident that led to Braille's eventual blindness at age four. Louis was forbidden to handle his father's leather tools. An overpowering curiosity made him disobey those orders and the accident occurred. Many children would be able to relate to the "forbidden fruit" and understand why he didn't listen to his father's warning. The author's statement, "The hardest lesson Louis had to learn was that blindness set him apart from other children" was powerful to read. Children want to be the same as everyone else. Freedman establishes a base for the reader to understand what drives Braille to function as a blind person in a seeing world.

Braille is sent at age ten to live in Paris, a big city unlike his home, and attend the Royal Institute For Blind Youth. The purpose of the school was to teach boys practical achievements that would help them function. The description of the school, uniforms, the sense of loneliness gives the reader an idea of how difficult this transition period was for a boy so young to leave his family.

When the author begins describing the method blind people used to read, the embossed books, his words give us an idea of what these books looked like. As he continues to describe the way Braille poked holes in paper at night, we can get a sense that this was not a method discovered quickly but rather over a long period of time. When Braille takes a secret military code and refines it, the reader is happy Braille has found a solution that will work. The Braille alphabet is simply explained with visuals to help the reader understand what Braille created. The story doesn't end there as we learn Braille's idea was not accepted by everyone. He refuses to give up and his persistence paid off. All of these are worthwhile lessons for children to learn.

Kate Kiesler's illustrations are effective. There is no color in these black, gray and white detailed drawings which reminds us that color is often void for a blind person. Her drawings are richly detailed to give us a sense of the way Louis Braille lived in the early 1800s.

PERSONAL OPINION
This was a fascinating account of an amazing boy who refused to accept the fact that he couldn't read like everyone else. Freedman's account puts the reader at the school, seeing Braille try and try again to devise a method that will work. There are many lessons to be learned from this story - if at first you don't succeed, try try again, don't take no for an answer, looking out for the well being of others, don't reinvent the wheel - take something that already exists and try to improve on it are a few examples.

REVIEW EXCERPTS
From School Library Journal
"An extremely well-written and informative book that tells about Braille's life and the development of his alphabet system for the blind. Freedman's gift for making his subjects both accessible and intriguing comes through wonderfully in this book. Readers learn not only about Braille and his struggle to communicate through the written word once he lost his sight, but also how long it took for his revolutionary innovation to become universally accepted. They also become aware of how isolated the blind were before his invention. Finely detailed pencil drawings and diagrams appear throughout the readable narrative. An entertaining and fascinating look at a remarkable man."

From Booklist
"More than 170 years ago, a blind French boy at age 15 invented a system of raised dots on paper that allows the sightless to read and write. Without melodrama, Freedman tells the momentous story in quiet chapters in his best plain style, making the facts immediate and personal. At age 3, Louis Braille was blinded in an accident with a knife. From the age of 12, he worked doggedly, sometimes secretly through the night at a special school in Paris, punching dots on paper, trying to develop a simple code for the alphabet that the blind could read with their fingertips. Woven into the story is an awareness of how the blind child experiences the world, what he remembers. Tension mounts as he refuses to be discouraged by technical and bureaucratic setbacks, until eventually he proves his system to his school and finally to the world."

Connections

Students might be interested to see a copy of something written in Braille. They will be surprised to see how fine the holes are punched, and how difficult it is for them to distinguish the letters.

Take 3x6 index cards and make individual alphabet cares. Press into the cards the letters not emphasized. Hole punch out the letters that are emphasized to form that letter. See if the students can identify a letter of the alphabet by feeling the card.

Serve a meal to the class in total darkness. Don't tell them what they are being served. See how well they can eat using their other senses other than sight to determine what the food is and how to feed themselves in darkness.

As a writing assignment, ask students to pick one characteristic of Louis Braille. (Determination, Curiosity, etc). Have them write why this is an attribute that would be a good to possess.

Readers who liked this book might like:

Davidson, Margaret. LOUIS BRAILLE: THE BOY WHO INVENTED BOOKS FOR THE BLIND. ISBN 9780590443500

Woodhouse, Jane. LOUIS BRAILLE (LIVES AND TIMES). ISBN 9781575725598