Leif Eriksson: Viking Explorer Book

This was a pretty amazing biography about Laura Bridgman. At 2-yrs-old, Laura lost her sight, hearing, taste, and smell due to Scarlet Fever. A doctor in Massachusetts (Samuel Howe) heard about her and convinced her parents to let Laura live with him on the East Coast so he could teach her. Laura was really very smart and was easy to teach and Howe was able to show the world that people with disabilities were able to learn and live productive lives just like non-disabled people. Really, his work was ground-breaking at that time. And Laura was famous! Many people were inspired by Laura including Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Charles Darwin observed Laura signing while dreaming which he believed proved his theory that language is necessary for thought (interesting!!??). Laura lived well before Helen Keller and actually taught Helen's teacher, Ann Sullivan, how to fingerspell. She was an amazing person who overcame amazing adversity and lived by the motto: "Obstacles are things to be overcome"