Category Archives: American Sign Language

Webinar Recordings Available for Purchase

September 27, 2023American Sign Language, Critiques, eCourses and Webinars, On Publishing, On Writing, Professional Development, Resources for Teachers and Librarians, webinarskathymacmillan

Learn on your own schedule with these recorded webinars, available now!

You will receive recording access information by email within 24 hours of order. You will have access to the recording for 30 days.

For Writers

Sale! ~~$35.00~~ $20.00

You’ve got the idea, you’ve got the drive, and you’ve got the willingness to work to get your book in print. But where do you start? Kathy MacMillan, Compton Crook Award finalist and author of more than two dozen traditionally published fiction and nonfiction books for children, breaks down the bewildering world of publishing, from writing and revision to submission and publication and the realities of life after publication.

Sale! ~~$35.00~~ $20.00

No matter your genre, a rich palette of details brings the world of your story to life. Compton Crook Award Finalist and author of fiction and nonfiction for children, teens, and adults Kathy MacMillan shows how to focus on the specifics you need at each stage of the writing process to build your characters’ world without ever losing sight of the story at its heart.

Manuscript critiques and coaching calls also available!

For Librarians and Educators

Learn basic American Sign Language vocabulary and how to use it in storytime with these lively sessions that teach themed vocabulary while demonstrating storytime activities and best practices for signing with young children. Each webinar focuses on a vocabulary theme and follows a demo storytime with language and culture notes to help you present American Sign Language to hearing audiences in context. $35.00 per recording.

One-on-one coaching calls also available.

Upcoming live webinars open for registration.

Read This!: GIVE ME A SIGN by Anna Sortino

August 11, 2023American Sign Language, ASL/Deaf Culture Book Reviews, Authors You Should Know, Recommended Reading, Resources for Teachers and Librarians, ReviewsAnna Sortinokathymacmillan

Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino
Summary: Lilah is stuck in the middle. At least, that’s what having a hearing loss seems like sometimes—when you don’t feel “deaf enough” to identify as Deaf or hearing enough to meet the world’s expectations. But this summer, Lilah is ready for a change. When Lilah becomes a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind, her plan is to brush up on her ASL. Once there, she also finds a community. There are cute British lifeguards who break hearts but not rules, a YouTuber who’s just a bit desperate for clout, the campers Lilah’s responsible for (and overwhelmed by)—and then there’s Isaac, the dreamy Deaf counselor who volunteers to help Lilah with her signing. Romance was never on the agenda, and Lilah’s not positive Isaac likes her that way. But all signs seem to point to love. Unless she’s reading them wrong? One thing’s for sure: Lilah wanted change, and things here are certainly different than what she’s used to.

As soon as I found out about this book, I knew I had to read it, and I knew exactly when and where I would do so: at the Deaf/American Sign Language Camp where I have been a counselor and director for 23 years and counting.** Having seen how many of our campers have discovered and embraced their Deaf identities at camp, I couldn’t wait to see how Deaf author Anna Sortino tackled this story. And she NAILED it. Lilah’s story is both effective and affecting, touching on many hot topics in the Deaf community: cochlear implants, hearing social media influencers, interactions with law enforcement, feeling “not Deaf enough”. But the story stays firmly grounded in Lilah’s singular experience, never feeling like a lecture or a checklist. (Aside from being a nuanced depiction of the Deaf experience, this book is also a terrific mentor text for any author who wants to tackle big issues in a natural way that keeps the story grounded in the protagonist’s wants and needs.) Through Lilah’s interactions with campers and counselors, Sortino showcases the diversity of the Deaf community and the disabled community, highlighting many different communication styles, language preferences, abilities, educational backgrounds, and perspectives coming together. Add to that a very sweet summer romance, and you’ve got a fun, immersive read that will appeal to anyone with a heart.

**If you or someone you know is between the ages of 7 and 17 and is Deaf/hard-of-hearing OR wants to learn American Sign Language in an immersion environment, check out Deaf Camps, Inc.’s residential camps!

GIVE ME A SIGN at Deaf/ASL Camp 2023:

GIVE ME A SIGN lying in a hammock at camp. GIVE ME A SIGN sitting on a picnic table, backed by trees. GIVE ME A SIGN nestled in a tire swing. GIVE ME A SIGN perched atop a giant Connect 4 set.

GIVE ME A SIGN is out now.

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Catch NITA’S FIRST SIGNS on Netflix!

January 6, 2023American Sign Language, Little Hands Signing series, Nita's First Signskathymacmillan

Nita’s First Signs is now streaming on Netflix as part of the Story Time Book Read-Along series! Check out these animated read-along storybooks here. Kids can read along with illustrated books that come to life through animation, music and narration. Exciting adventures, fuzzy animal friends and more! (Find Nita’s First Signs in Episode #7: Kindness and Family.)

Read This!: DEAF UTOPIA by Nyle DiMarco

June 28, 2022American Sign Language, ASL/Deaf Culture Book Reviews, Read This, Recommended Reading, Reviewskathymacmillan

Deaf Utopia: A Memoir – And a Love Letter to a Way of Life by Nyle DiMarco with Robert Siebert
Summary: In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him. A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions. Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.

DiMarco’s memoir is open and honest, at turns hilarious and poignant. The subtitle “A memoir – and a love letter to a way of life” is right on; DiMarco draws back the curtain on what it was like to grow up in a big Deaf family, from the joys of ASL signs zinging around the dinner table to the tragedies of discrimination from the hearing world and the language deprivation experienced by his father. In describing his experiences on America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars, he offers a clear-eyed understanding of the ways producers shape the narratives in reality TV, while also cogently analyzing the accessibility fails along the way. Through candid anecdotes, he tracks his changing understanding of his own sexuality, finally embracing his queer identity. Throughout the narrative, the book weaves in just enough background information about ASL and Deaf culture and history to help even newcomers to the topic understand how DiMarco’s personal story fits into the bigger picture of the multifaceted Deaf community.

DEAF UTOPIA is out now.

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Little Hands Signing Professional Development on demand

June 7, 2022American Sign Language, eCourses and Webinars, Professional Development, webinarskathymacmillan

Little Hands Signing Professional Development Series Season Pass

Add some American Sign Language to your storytime toolbox! Learn how to incorporate ASL into storytime songs, rhymes, and stories in a respectful and effective way.

Your Season Pass registration includes on-demand recording access to all 6 webinars through August 31, 2022!

Winter Signs
Lovey Dovey Signs
Spring Signs
Weather Signs
Ocean Signs (Summer Reading Special)
Summer Signs

Register now for the Little Hands Signing Professional Development Series Season Pass

Or register for upcoming webinars here.