Month: February 2023

This Tuesday, I called CM editor, Mr. Dave Jenkinson, to submit my cartoon dictionary for review. His first question was if the book was for children, as those are the books they review. While the reading level for my dictionary’s biographies aims more for young adults in high school and above, I assured him the dictionary’s cartoon illustrations also work for children.
That’s when he told me one of CM’s parameters is that the book is in print. They couldn’t review a digital book.
I had planned to mail the book to CM on a USB with a brochure highlighting the book’s qualities too. Sigh, at least my query will have them update their website to remove DVD reviews (the reason I thought reviewing a digital book was a possibility).
To acknowledge this obstacle, the ASL hand sign for PRINT.
The open G hand sign closes as it pulls down on the heel of the opposite hand, like a print machine pressing ink onto the paper. Keeping with the word’s visual, I drew a cartoon of Johannes Gutenberg, the German goldsmith credited with inventing the printing press.
#ASL #signlanguage #print #newspaper #issue #press #publication #Gutenberg #cartoon #myasldictionary

Now that I’ve returned to class, I must limit my new illustrations and animation to once a week to focus more on my studies. This week I learned the ASL hand sign for DEAF SCHOOL. The first school for the Deaf in America was the American Asylum for Deaf Mutes. In the 1800s, deaf schools were seen more as institutions to send deaf children to, but to the deaf community, they were a source of pride. This hand sign remembers that history with the movement of the hand sign for SCHOOL with both hands in the letter I hand shape. One gently tapping down on the other.
For the character to illustrate this hand sign, I looked into Canada’s deaf education history. I would have loved to draw Antoine Caron, the first deaf teacher to teach deaf children in Canada, but I couldn’t find a picture of him for reference. Instead, I drew Reverend Brother Joseph-Marie Young, a deaf teacher and Institution director for Institution Caholique des Sourds-Mueits, the first deaf school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Another hand sign for DEAF SCHOOL is the blending of the hand signs for DEAF and SCHOOL.
#ASL #signlanguage #deafschool #teacher #joesphmarieyoung #cartoon #myasldictionary

Covid19 has once again put my building under lockdown. Thankfully I’m healthy, but I have to stay quarantined inside the building and my room until the virus clears. The ASL word of the day marks today’s adventure with my book’s ASL hand signs for JAIL and PRISON. To show the visual of prison bars, my redhead in a classic prison uniform holds up the ASL hand signs for 5 and 4 as the dominant hand smacks forward into the opposite, Once for JAIL, Twice for PRISON.
#ASL #signlanguage #prison #jail #prisoner #cartoon #myasldictionary

Following the advice from children’s author Kathleen Gauer, I’m sending a copy of my book, MY ASL Dictionary, to the electronic reviewing journal CM Canadian Review. Mailing the material to their postal address is a little complicated as it is not a printed book. Instead, I’m placing the file inside a USB drive. To avoid confusion in this presentation, I created my first trifold booklet for my dictionary to hold the drive and present printed images and information from and about my book. I placed an order for trifold Brochure paper that will arrive next week. Then I can print the booklet and send my book out for a CM review that will hopefully help get my AS Dictionary into the library. Fingers crossed.
MyASLdictionary.Brochure1.