Signing For Dummies
by Adan R. Penilla II, Angela Lee Taylor

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Book Reviews of Signing For Dummies

Book Review: A good idea ruined by bad editing
Summary: 2 Stars

- The man in Figure "a" is making the sign for the question word "what". Alas, this word is not introduced until page 77. The sign is supposed to be the exclamation word "what!" introduced on page 36.

- Figure "b" is the sign for "big", but this sign has not been taught. In fact, if the index is to be trusted, the word "big" is NEVER mentioned again in the book.

- Figure "f" is the sign for "food" (noun), but the answer is supposed to be "eat" (verb). The difference between the two signs is clearly illustrated on pages 30, 31, and 109.

Another frustrating inconsistency occurs on page 78. The sign for "why?" is described as "touch the side of your forehead with the fingers of your dominant hand; extend your thumb and pinky (in the Y sign) as you bring your hand down, middle three fingers in, to chest level." However the accompanying figure in the book shows the sign as a flexing of the middle finger toward the speaker. The description matches the sign we use in my area for "why?", and the illustration matches what is used in the CD-ROM. Both are probably correct (although I am only familiar with the "Y sign" that we use here in Rochester), but it only confuses the issue to describe the sign one way and show it another.

I very much wanted to like this book. I think the authors approach the material in a fresh and interesting way. Unfortunately whoever was responsible for compiling the illustrations really screwed up. In a visual-based language, that is unforgivable.

My hope is that this book will be rereleased in a corrected second edition. Until then, I advise people to steer clear. What saves the book from a one-star rating is that the text itself is written well, particularly when explaining grammar and Deaf culture.

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