Helen's Big World: The Life of Helen Keller

About Doreen Rappaport

Doreen Rappaport is the recipient of a Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award for her body of work. Her books have been praised for both their careful research and their varied literary styles. Among the many titles to her name are a trilogy on African-American history, illustrated by Shane W. Evans; books on Native American history and women’s history; and many biographies, including Lady Liberty: A Biography, illustrated by Matt Tavares.

Beyond Courage, her most ambitious project to date, took more than six years to research and write and presented her with the opportunity to speak directly with some of the survivors whose stories are told within. “How Jews organized themselves in order to survive and defy their enemy is an important but still neglected piece of history,” she says. “I present a sampling of actions, efforts, and heroism with the hope that I can play a role in helping to correct the damaging and persistent belief that Jews ‘went like sheep to the slaughter.’”

Doreen Rappaport lives in upstate New York.