Customer Reviews

The Night Before Christmas: Told in Signed English

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i am just learning asl, but i was very dissapointed with this book's approach because i find signing to be so beautiful. The book is set up like a regular kid's book, with written text underneath a picture. The signed english is off in a box by itself, partly covering the picture. There is a ugly line drawing of the sign for each word of the text, with the word again written under it. The signs look out of place, and were the last thing my eye wandered to. I would not read this book to a deaf child, because i felt like it made the signs look like afterthoughts, or intrustions on english, rather than important events of their own. The signs are presented as isolated from the story and colorful illustrations, and they are very small and unattractive looking. i want any book i share with a child to convey the beauty and integrity of signs, and give the child pride in his culture. i would have liked it more if the signs were at least nicely drawn, or if the text was only shown once, as a key to the signs. I also wonder about the choice of translating a rhyming story like the night before christmas into a visual language like sign where rhymes carry no meaning. While i did learn a few new signs from it, i would recommendend buying a child's sign langauge book with pictures and signs for common words, or buying a children's book and drawing signs next to its text; your sign illustrations will probably look more inviting and send a better message about the importance of sign langauge

This is a wonderful series of children's books, using simplified versions of classic stories that families can enjoy together, especially if the deaf child has hearing parents. The signing technique used is Signed English, as opposed to ASL, so there a sign for each part of every sentence. S.E. was developed to teach kids about communication through the English language as well as through sign. A great resource for learning and literacy.

I just want to clarify: if you're looking for a book with American Sign Language, this is not it. This book uses Exact Signed English, which follows different grammar rules and is not used as widely in the Deaf community. ASL does not have signs for articles (the, a, an), for example, nor does it add "ing" and similar endings to words. Things like this are understood in the context of the sentence. If you do want to learn more about ESE, this book would help with that.