Essential ASL : The Fun, Fast, and Simple Way to Learn American Sign Language

Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's simple . . .
Review: "Simple" is the operative word here. While this guide provides illustrations and arrows to show movement, the vocabulary is more limited than I had expected. I did appreciate both verbal and illustrated descriptions of each word, so if I couldn't figure out what one meant, I could go to the other.

This book is for those curious about ASL, or for those (like me) who need only the barest knowledge of it. For people who seriously want (or need) to learn ASL, find another, more definitive book. This one will only frustrate you with its simplicity.

Rating:
Summary: good written descriptions of signs, bad selection of words
Review: This book has one big thing going for it, and that is, for the words that they do have, they give excellent written descriptions of the hand motions (which are usually impossible to decipher from the drawings). But about 95% of the time that I pick it up to look up a word, it doesn't have it. Here are some words it doesn't have: over, ladder, fix (but it has fax), light (but it has lesbian), cut, knife - these words seem pretty basic to me.

The section that teaches you whole phrases is good only for laughing. It has the most useless, ridiculous phrases - but let me give you some examples: "Those kids have already become snobs." "We want to see you, but not until my daughter leaves." "You must inform the family about our recent marriage." "I have a few cats under the house."

I do not recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: American Sign Language
Review: This was the first book I purchased when I discovered that I would be assisting in teaching my 2 year old daughter sign language as her primary form of communication. I loved the fact that this book is in a dictionary-type form where I can quickly search for a word. But this book is really lacking in "common" words used to describe everyday things used by a 2 year old child. "Essential ASL" is a great book to be used for reference when needing to quickly look up a word that you may have forgotten how to sign; but is not, in my opinion, the best book to purchase if you are just beginning to learn sign language.