What a great introduction to the life of Louis Braille. It quickly touches on the main points of his life and his great invention of braille. It did make me also want to learn more information about his invention and this great system that allows the blind to read/communicate. The illustrations will help young readers to picture the things that might be a bit foreign to them. ( )

Braille? As in like the print that the blind uses to read, today???
.... YES! Louis Braille was the guy who invented it and this book tells you his entire journey.

**Summary:
This young boy invented the braille system at the age of 15! However, he only managed to do this because he had a terrible accident that caused him to go blind in both of his eyes.
When he was only three-years-old, he tried to punch a hole in some leather (inspired to be like his father). The tool slid and poke his eye. The infection spread to both eyes, which eventually cause him to go blind.
He went to a special school for blind students. He learned it had only 14 books with "embossed letters". This system was hard because the books were big, heavy, and took a long time to read. This made him work hard to figure out a way to make reading and writing easier for people who are blind. Addition to this, he wanted an easy way the blind and non-blind to communicate.0
With the idea of "night writing", Louis Braille invented the Braille system. At first, it wasn't excepted but through hard work and getting the word out there, it finally was excepted.

**About the book:
This book is a great book to get children to read on their own. It is a short, novel with short chapters. It even has pictures to help children transfer from reading "kiddy" picture books to more "adult-like"/"older" books. The last pages also include a timeline. ( )

Recommended Ages: Gr. 2-5

Plot Summary: Louis Braille became blind at the age of 4 after he poked himself with one of his father's tools and his eyes got infected. He managed to attend school, which was unusual for blind children at the time. When he struggled to read and write, his family sent him to a school for the blind in Paris. He stayed there for many years and succeeded, despite the building being old, musty, and cold causing sickness in many of the children. Louis tried a few methods of reading and writing for the blind, but he wasn't happy with them. He asked a local retired artillery officer who was interested in creating a method for the blind to read and write, but Charles Barbier wasn't willing to listen to 12 y/o Louis's ideas. Louis continued his method on his own. Would it work? Would the language work for all, blind and sighted?

Setting: France, early 1800's (born 1809)

Characters:

Recurring Themes: persistence, patience, sickness, school, learning, music

Controversial Issues: none

Personal Thoughts: Easy, quick read. Interesting.

Genre: Biography

Pacing: Fast, fairly large font, pictures on most pages
Characters:
Frame:
Storyline:

Activity: ( )

Louis Braille was a french man who is the creator of braille. Braille to start off is an alphabet for the blind to use their fingers feel the dots and know which letter they are feeling. Louis Braille was born in 1809 on January fourth in a small farm town called Coupvray located in France. Louis was not rich nor was his family very poor the worked very hard and made a good living. The reason Louis went blind is because one day when he was three he was in his father's workhouse playing with a sharp tool he was trying to puncture a slippery leather strap but instead punctured his eye. And the reason he lost sight in his other eye is because infection spread to it. Louis was sent to a special school in Paris for blind youth like him and while he was there he learned many things and made many friends. While he was at this school that he would later he would become a teacher at he learned that the writing systems for the blind were very hard to use so he decided to make his own whenever he had free time he would work on this system that was based on captain Charles Barbier's form of military writing called "night Writing". when Louis became an adult his writing was really only used at the school , but with the help of an assistant named Joseph Gaudet once they had changed the building the school was in they showed off this form of writing and it was accepted by the audience very well. However, France would not make it the official writing system for the blind and Louis Braille would never see that day because he had been fighting tuberculosis and his body couldn't fight it off anymore so when the day came in 1852 he died on January 6 two days after his forty-third birthday.

This book was very informative like a book of this genre should be. It filled me in on all the little details about Louis Braille and kept me turning the pages. I do enjoy a good informative read so it was nice to kick back and read this. I appreciate what Louis braille did not for only himself or his time and the world because we're still using his system 200 years later. In my opinion, it seems that Louis was a kind person who was always ready to help someone in need whenever they needed help. He was a kind teacher and taught as much as he could till the very end. It seems that in this book they caught all of his good features like an informative read like this should. Overall the book was great I enjoyed reading it and I hope all people who read it as well enjoy it. ( )

Who Was Louis Braille? by Margaret Frith, Scott Anderson (Illustrations) is a detailed book about Louis' life and how he created the braille system. It tells how he became blind, his life in general, his school, the issues he had, his success, those against him and more. Very readable and enjoyable book. Made me feel like I knew Louis and his friends. Great pictures along the way. Over 100 pages of just info too. Great job! I got this book from the library. ( )