Anna's Silent World

Wolf, Bernard. Anna's Silent World. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1977.

Anna's Silent World is a book about Anna's life. Anna was born deaf and her family is teaching her how to function in a hearing world. Anna goes through training to talk and to learn how to read people's lips so she knows what they are saying if she could not hear who is talking with the amplification. Anna is mainstreamed into an elementary school; her teachers make special arrangements to make sure that Anna is able to hear what they are teaching.

This story is written a little bit different than normal children's books; this story is based on the black and white photographs that Bernard Wolf took. He later added the words to the pictures to aid in understanding what Anna does each week to function in a hearing world. The book was written in 1977, so things are a little bit different now, but I like how the story is shown through the pictures, and the text explains what is going on because a person who is deaf relies on their sight in order to communicate and understand what is going on. Bernard Wolf tries to get the reader to rely on their sight but if they cannot do solely on the pictures they can use the words to understand the whole story.

Bernard Wolf is considered to be an expert in his field of photography and photographing children. He focuses on social issues and young children. There was no information about him personally besides his professional career.