What was the most interesting fact about Helen Keller that you learned in your research?

There are so many interesting details about Helen Keller it’s really hard to pick just one. But one of the many thing I admired about her was her talent for being a good friend. Her dearest friend was her first teacher and companion and translator Anne Sullivan, who was her companion for nearly 50 years. Helen was also friends with people like the writer Mark Twain and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Another interesting thing about Helen was she wasn’t just friends with humans. She was a lifelong dog lover. One detail that I loved about Helen and dogs was that she was actually the first American to own an Akita puppy. It was a gift from the Japanese government, and now there are many Akitas in the United States. They were brought over after World War II and whenever I see an Akita in New York City where I live, I think of Helen.

What is the biggest lesson you hope young readers take away from the book?

The biggest lesson I hope people take away from this is book is don’t let people tell you there’s something you can’t do when you know that you can, even if it’s something that no one has ever done before. After all, there was a first person to drive a car or to fly a plane or to go to the moon. If there’s something you know you can do and no one’s done it before, why shouldn’t you be the first? I love that about Helen Keller as a lesson that she taught us.

How did you do the research for this biography?

Helen Keller accomplished many things in her life, and among her many, many accomplishments were the 14 books she wrote, along with countless speeches. In researching for this book, I read a lot of the work that Helen herself had written. I read a lot of Helen’s on words. Then I read a lot of what people had written about her and about the organizations that she helped found, like the American Civil Liberties Union and an organization called Helen Keller International. There’s also mean a number of works based on Helen’s life like The Miracle Work, which was a play and a movie, so I researched those. There’s so much information about Helen Keller and it was a pleasure to learn about her.

What question would you ask Helen Keller if you had the chance to meet her?

If I had the chance to ask Helen Keller one question, I think I would ask her which of her accomplishments was she most proud of. There were so many, and I wonder what was the most meaningful one to her.

What does the Persisterhood mean to you?

The Persisterhood means two things to me. Number one, it means persisting even when circumstances are more difficult than you would like them to be. Because after all, we don’t get to pick our circumstances, but we can pick how we respond to them and whether or not we persist in them. I think that making that choice to persist is very meaningful to me. The second thing the Persisterhood means to me is looking back where you came from and helping other people along the way, and reaching back to help them pursue their dreams. If we all did that, the world would be a better place.