This book has a lot of information, but it also uses some signs that Deaf instructors recommend not using because they are considered Signed English." Having taken a six-week online course through my library, I had some basic knowledge of ASL and was able to spot a discrepancy with the sign for "what" and look it up online. Having learned that even one of these signs is inaccurate, I cannot trust the information in the rest of the book. ( )

This book was interesting, but more interesting than I feel useful.

1. The explanations of ASL grammar were concise, simple and not lacking in examples.

2. The diagrams themselves were a little hard to understand. Arrows and drawings didn't always make it clear (at least to me) how to perform the gestures. Pictures are all you get though in most cases.

3. There is a lot of great information included in the book on the deaf community: concerns, history, humor, etc. , which was wonderful for me since I basically picked up this book on impulse.

4. The vocabulary is a little suspect. A lot of basic conversation and utility signs were nowhere to be found, while a lot of relatively useless ones were included (wrestling, Finland, "to beat someone"...)

No offense to brutish, Finnish wrestlers.

So yeah, my overall take: great information, well-presented and readable; poor attention to rudiments and hopeless in vocabulary. ( )