The Touch of Magic + The Story of My Life

By: Lorena A. Hickok, Helen Keller

Narrated by: Susan Muse

Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Helen Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life, is not only fascinating and inspiring, but it also includes wonderful description, an elevated vocabulary, and deep insights into life. Accompanying this autobiography is a beautifully written biography, The Touch of Magic, about Helen Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan. As a destitute, misbehaving orphan who is going blind, Annie experiences and overcomes the extreme trials in her life, which prepare her for the great work she does with Helen Keller.

©2018 Jenny Phillips (P)2019 Steven Lerud

Critic reviews

"After reading these two books, I knew they needed to be put together, to be read one right after another. First, you read about the absolutely fascinating life of Annie Sullivan, and see how her unique experiences prepare her for her life's work with Helen Keller. Then, you read the story of Helen Keller and her perspective of how Annie Sullivan completely changed her life. These two noble lives were beautifully entwined, just as these two books entwine to show a full and beautiful picture of the incredible Helen Keller story." (Jenny Phillips)

amazing

I love listening to these two Ananya women's lives. Their challenges and successes. The aithors and narrator brought the book to life.

Love this book, but...

I live this book, and I really enjoyed the reader. It was so interesting to hear about Anne Sullivan’s side of the story as well. It was a story I hadn’t heard about before. The beginning was my favorite part, but by the end It got quite boring. It was hard to listen to the poor money choices these two girls made, and how for quite a while it was all going down hill.

Great books, not great reader

What a wonderful idea, to include these two great women's lives together in one audio book!

I only wish that the reader had been up to the task. She stumbled over some words, mispronounced many (such as "wise-ened" for wizened), and even substituted some (such as "grab" for garb). I've never heard so many mistakes in an audio book performance, and it greatly distracted from the experience. It was clear she had prepared well for pronouncing German and French words in the books, so it was perplexing to hear her have difficulty with the English. It's less noticeable in Annie Sullivan's biography, but worsens in the autobiography of Helen Keller, who uses a richer range of words, which must have been unfamiliar to the reader.

These books are ones that we purchased for our children, knowing they could gain great wisdom from hearing of these women's singular lives. But I fear the poor reading may only be suitable for those whose vocabulary is already greater than that of the reader, so that her mistakes will not become fixed in their minds.

Excellent story but sub-par narrator

This audiobook is of The Good and the Beautiful volume featuring both the 1961 biography of Annie Sullivan by Lorena A. Hickok and the 1903 autobiography of Helen Keller.

The story of Annie’s life is riveting, and makes an invaluable complement to Keller’s autobiography. However, the reader paused within short phrases, frequently mispronounced words, or made slight grammar mistakes not found in the printed text (making a singular verb plural, for example). Her expression excelled in passages showing frustration, but was stilted in other types of passages.

The unnatural pauses within short phrases, and halting pauses before a proper name, perhaps to ensure correct pronunciation, were difficult to listen to. Additionally, the narrator did not pause at the end of sentences, but raced on as if in a rush.

This also was true at the end of each chapter, or after a significant passage within a chapter, which did not allow the listener to soak in the import of what was just read. Same thing happened at the end of the first book, The Touch of Magic: the reader galloped on to the title of the second book with no pause.

I won’t be listening to the second portion of this audiobook for homeschool. Perhaps a better quality, professionally trained reader will be found who can make this a joy to listen to.