45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful, but not as perfect as I'd hoped., June 9, 2006
This review is from: Random House Webster's Concise American Sign Language Dictionary (Mass Market Paperback)
For some time, we've had some flash cards and a small book containing signs to teach our son, who is nearly 1 1/2. I found the little book and cards to be frustrating for multiple reasons. The flash cards get out of alphabetical order easily, so it's hard to look something up; and there are only about 50-60 signs featured in each set. Words that my son would really like to be able to express, like "light" and "fan" and "otter" and "frog," are missing. Additionally, some of the words from the book and flash cards overlap, but the two formats disagree about what the signs are!
So, based on the reviews and on the number of signs included, I couldn't wait to get the Random House Webster's Concise American Sign Language Dictionary. The book does have a lot going for it. If you know the alphabet in sign language (and it's included in the book, in case you don't), the descriptions of signs really help clarify the illustrations. As soon as we got the book, I looked up "light" and "frog," and I was delighted to be able to sign them to my son. Catching my excitement, he signed "light" back right away. But "otter" was missing from the dictionary. "Well," I thought, "maybe there is no sign for 'otter.'" No huge loss, since my son does an endearing otter impression anyway.
But then I discovered that "fan" has also been left out of the dictionary. "Fan" is a pretty basic and common word, so I assume that there is a specific sign for it.
Examples of words that ARE included: ascend, delegate, optimistic, sightseeing, humid, dominoes, rehabilitation, sterilization, robot, sacrifice, slavery, porpoise, hawk, pimples, zap, worship, prostitute, puzzle, diamond, lesbian, loiter, merchandise.
Examples of words that AREN'T included: otter, squash, fan, beaver, whale, moose, ceiling, kaleidoscope, owl, crow, robin, quail, raven, tiger, zebra, wolf, coyote, tractor, mow, guava, tortilla, quesadilla, spinach, wheel, cactus, cardinal.
Being able to say words like "rehabilitation" is definitely useful; it would take a long time to spell them out. But I think I probably talk about fans more often than I talk about robots. This is a self-proclaimed concise dictionary, and there is a note at the beginning of the book about which words were included and which words weren't (and why), but that still doesn't help me sign "squash" or "moose."
I don't know that anyone cares, but the copy of this book that we received does have a slightly different cover than the one pictured. The picture shows hands in a single sign, whereas our book features five full-color photos of a woman signing. I actually like the one we got better than the one pictured.
Oh, and previous reviews indicate that the alphabet and numbers are listed in the back of the book. Numbers are still at the back of the book, but each letter of the alphabet now appears at the start of the section of words beginning with that letter.
Overall, I was torn between giving the book three stars and four. I really like the descriptions of how to do signs, but that only helps when the word I want to sign is in the dictionary.
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