Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0027008010 ISBN 13: 9780027008012

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1989

Beautiful color photographs and a spirit of discovery set the stage for a glorious day at the zoo, where deaf actress Mary Beth and a group of children visit familiar animals and demonstrate the signs and fingerspellings for them.

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 3-- The third of the "Handtalk" titles carries on the imaginative and joyful tradition of its predecessors for sharing an original story in sign language. Mary Beth is off to the zoo with a group of ethnically diverse children to enjoy the sights. As they make their way through the zoo, they sign and fingerspell the names of the animals, but the book is not simply the rote signing of one animal after the next. Rather, it is the story of children on an adventure: What time does the zoo open? Where shall we go? What time do they feed the sea lion? In addition to signing animal names, the telling of time is expressed with the signing of numbers 1--12 in a clocklike shape. Vibrant color photographs depict the action of the story and the signing, while black-and-white insets show the fingerspelling. Boldface type placed next to each sign clearly states each idea but does not invade the photograph. Ancona's photography captures precisely the movement of hands and the children's expressive faces , two elements that are key to conveying an idea in sign. While other books merely introduce sign language vocabulary, this one exposes children to it in a creative and exuberant manner. --Susan Nemeth McCarthy, Arlington County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.