MORE SIMPLE SIGNS

A companion volume to Wheeler's earlier Simple Signs (1995, not reviewed, etc.), this cheerfully illustrated manual demonstrates the American Sign Language alphabet, plus signs for 31 basic words and phrases (e.g., stop, go, yes, please). Other well- known books on signing contain much larger vocabularies, but Wheeler's diagrams are far superior to the blurry action photos in Remy Charlip and Mary Miller's Handtalk, the tiny pictures in Linda Bove's Sign Language Fun, or the not-always-crystal-clear drawings in Pamela Baker's My First Book of Sign. Wheeler's line drawings, combined with succinct verbal instructions, make the formation of the letters very clear. An ideal first book on ASL, making self- instruction possible even for beginners. (Picture book. 4-9)