Rating: 
Summary: A Confidence Booster!
Review: I just purchased this book not too long ago and I can't put it down! As a beginning ASL student I find this book very helpful. My confidence in meeting deaf folks is stronger than ever because of this wonderful book. Don't give it a second thought; Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: really helpful for the ASL student
Review: I love this book! If you are trying to learn ASL, you will probably learn a lot from this book. It is divided into chapters by subject, like "Health" "Travel" and "Animals and Colors." So, you are able to build your vocabulary as you are learning basic grammar.
ASL syntax is quite different from English, so I have found it very helpful to use this book. All of the phrases and sentences are shown in ASL, so you are able to learn how to piece your signs together.
Also, the drawings are great - the character who models the signs looks very amiable.
I'm just a beginner in ASL, mostly I know vocabulary. I have just begun to try to grasp the grammar, and this book has been a big help. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: A supplement to baby signs
Review: i recently saw some news relating to communicating with babies on how to sign and was interested. i got garcia's "sign with your baby" along with this book. needless to say i was quite disappointed with garcia's book but the ASL phrase book more than made up for the lack of signs found in the former. the ASL book covered a lot more vocabulary and is sectioned by categories (e.g., family, foods, profession, time, etc.). the illustrations were extremely clear to read and understand (which is great for a novice). it also teaches you how to sign simple sentences. this is a great buy if you're hoping to learn sign language.
Rating:
Summary: A supplement to baby signs
Review: i recently saw some news relating to communicating with babies on how to sign and was interested. i got garcia's "sign with your baby" along with this book. needless to say i was quite disappointed with garcia's book but the ASL phrase book more than made up for the lack of signs found in the former. the ASL book covered a lot more vocabulary and is sectioned by categories (e.g., family, foods, profession, time, etc.). the illustrations were extremely clear to read and understand (which is great for a novice). it also teaches you how to sign simple sentences. this is a great buy if you're hoping to learn sign language.
Rating:
Summary: Great book along with a good dictionary.
Review: It is a great book to help learn the organizing of phrases. Most of the drawings are good, but some were hard to tell exactly how the sign needs to be done. I got the Random House ASL dictionary, and the two together are working out well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not the best!
Review: This book is a good resource for learning ASL signs. While it does do a good job introducing beginners to ASL phrases and also displays the difference between ASL and Signed Exact English (often mistaken for ASL), it does not explain the grammar rules of ASL. The point being that, after one has learned the signs in the book, one has no way of knowing how to form other phrases on their own. Instead of teaching the method, this book teaches memorization. This is okay sometimes but for those who REALLY want to learn the language and become fluent, it is not enough. To learn ASL grammar, I would recommend "American Sign Language: A Teacher's Resource Text on Grammar and Culture" by Baker-Shenk and Cokely. All in all, this book is pretty good and is much better than many other resources out there, it's just not enough.
Rating:
Summary: Don't learn grammar - absorb it!
Review: This book is a perfect way to learn ASL grammar. I've been studying ASL for a year, and most books I've found either ignore grammar and basically use English word order, or else try to explain the grammar in a rule-based way.Learning a foreign language like French or Japanese is full of complicated grammar. Lou Fant proves that there's another way. You can really get the hang of ASL grammar without memorizing compicated rules and doing dull exercises. By showing good examples, and explaining the principles rather than the rules, you just absorb the topic-comment structure of ASL grammar by observing. This book makes it easy.
Rating:
Summary: Don't learn grammar - absorb it!
Review: This book is a perfect way to learn ASL grammar. I've been studying ASL for a year, and most books I've found either ignore grammar and basically use English word order, or else try to explain the grammar in a rule-based way. Learning a foreign language like French or Japanese is full of complicated grammar. Lou Fant proves that there's another way. You can really get the hang of ASL grammar without memorizing compicated rules and doing dull exercises. By showing good examples, and explaining the principles rather than the rules, you just absorb the topic-comment structure of ASL grammar by observing. This book makes it easy.
Rating:
Summary: A very good place to start
Review: This book is a very good starting point for learning ASL, because it emphasizes that ASL is NOT English. The introductory discussion of ASL points it out repeatedly, and the organization as a phrase book rather than a dictionary drives the point home. I wish I'd had this book from the beginning. (Besides, I always grin when I see the illustrations, because they look to me like Colin Machrie of _Whose Line is it Anyway?_ fame.)
Rating:
Summary: An excellent resource; the best way to learn ASL from a book
Review: This is an excellent resource for those who wish to use real-life ASL as spoken by the American Deaf Community. Unlike other books on the topic, The American Sign Language Phrase Book avoids "Signed English" (the use of ASL as a word-for-word analog to spoken English). The book presents the grammar of ASL, showing sentence structure, phrasing, even slang, and noting when spoken English words are inappropriate. This is the only book I've seen that could really facilitate a friendly conversation between a hearing and deaf person.The down side? The illustrations are hard to get used to. Because The American Sign Language Phrase Book (properly) emphasizes facial expression, there is often not enough detail given in illustrating the hands.My ASL teacher recommends this book to the exclusion of any other ASL dictionary
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