The Handmade Counting Book

by Laura Rankin

Shows how to count from one to twenty and twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and one hundred using American Sign Language

Genres: Childrens, Counting

32 pages, Library Binding

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mellanie C]

This was really cool!

[Sarah]

I felt this was a great book to teach young children how to count in sign language. The artist uses kids' hands to represent the numbers so students of this age can relate or even say, "that looks like my hand!" which connects them to the book. Rankin also uses toys children play with in order to physically represent the number with objects. If the object is not a toy, the are things a child would recognize and still connect and understand the book. It would be a good book for preschoolers who are learning their numbers and make correspondences between numbers, fingers, and objects. But it would also be good for kindergartners who are being introduced to a new language.

The problem I have with this book is after 20, it skips numbers. The attempt is to show children how to count numbers with a zero on the end (because 10 and 20 do not follow the traditional pattern) and show common numbers used by the Deaf, but the counting pattern is not consistent. The math concept presented here is good up until Rankin starts skipping numbers which may confuse students learning how to count.

[Cami]

I loved reading this book. I love American sign language, so this book was great for me. This would be good to use with the Handmade Alphabet when talking about different cultures, including the deaf culture.

[Alyssa]

This book is great! I have always wanted to learn sign language, and after learning the alphabet this is a fun addition. It was easy to follow the instructions in this book and I really liked the illustrations.

[Susan]

Counting book with ASL

[Kathy MacMillan]

The acclaimed author of “The Handmade Alphabet” now presents a book that pairs American Sign Language signs for the numbers 1-20, 25, 50, 75, and 100 with beautifully drawn objects.

[Crysta Hall]

Just not my style, but a good resource for sign language.

[Marilyn]

Excellent Sign language numbers.