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Sign Language Studies

American Annals of the Deaf

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Handy Stories to Read and Sign

Donna Jo Napoli
and Doreen DeLuca
Illustrated by Maureen Klusza

View the table of contents.
Read the authors’ note.
Read reviews: The Midwest Book Review, SIGNews.
  $19.95s

Click here for the Handy Stories to Read and Sign Companion DVD.

Handy Stories to Read and Sign takes a bilingual, fun approach to help beginning readers, deaf and hearing, improve their comprehension of both English and American Sign Language (ASL). Charmingly illustrated, the five stories presented here increase in complexity as the children’s vocabulary and reading skills increase during the school year. Introductions to each story explain to parents and teachers the elements emphasized, such as providing helpful information on how the formation of certain signs creates ASL rhymes.

       The first story, “School Signs,” is told entirely in single-word sentences. New readers use the story’s rhymes and rhythm to memorize it until they can match the words they hear or the signs they see with the words printed on the page. The second story, “Haunted House,” highlights rhymes in ASL but not in English, and also ASL classifiers. “Thanksgiving Soon” adds refrains that divide the story into different sections, and shows the differences between the structures of the two languages.

       The final two stories, “Winter Solstice” and “Class Pet,” introduce young readers to English articles, while also positioning the ASL sign illustrations apart from the English sentences to encourage the children to rely on their new skills. Handy Stories is the perfect bilingual book for teaching children to read and sign.

Donna Jo Napoli is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at Swarthmore College.

Doreen DeLuca is an RID-certified Interpreter who works in the Philadelphia, PA, and Washington, DC, areas.

ISBN 978-1-56368-407-4, 7 x 9 paperback, 56 pages, 56 pages, color illustrations, sign illustrations

$19.95s

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