Books with Deaf Characters Post 11 – River of Hands
River of Hands is a small book of 4 short stories written by deaf children. Well, young adults really. Two of the stories are completely original, the other two are variations on stories that are frequently told among Deaf people.. in Canada and the US, apparently. Since this book is a Canadian book. But as most of Canada uses American Sign Language, I suppose it makes sense.
Each story has deaf characters in it — the two original stories have Deaf kids as the main characters. And those are the two stories I much preferred. One is about a couple of boys who go fishing in the toilet. Hey, boys have to amuse themselves somehow, right? The other is about two girls who make friendship bracelets out of cursed beads. This one uses the ‘was it all a dream?’ trope, but I’ve found you have to forgive that in kids. Heck, it’s not like I’ve never done it myself!
Since there is signing in the stories, some of the stories have illustrations of some of the key signs afterwards. The fish story has a fish showing us the signs for fishing! Bet you didn’t know fish had hands and fingers, did you?
Yes, the stories are written by kids, and they’re pretty short, but I did like this book for what it was. Two fishy thumbs up.
K Said,
January 24, 2010 @ 6:09 pm
Um, so for those of us who aren’t familiar with stories that are ‘frequently told among Deaf people’, what are the other two tales?
Jellyn Said,
January 31, 2010 @ 12:32 am
“Please, But” — Deaf guy drives up to a railroad crossing. The train passes, but the barrier stays down. He heads over to the booth to wake the guy up and tries to tell him to put the barrier up. He gets out a pad and writes down ‘Please but’. Naturally the hearing guy has no clue what he’s talking about. But if you know ASL, it’s perfectly clear.
(‘But’ is two crossed index fingers separating, like two gates being lifted up.)
The other story, a deaf couple checks into a hotel, and they’re tired, so they sleep. And housekeeping comes by, sees the ‘do not disturb’, and does not disturb. Housekeeping comes back, still there, comes back, still there. Housekeeping knocks. Calls through the door. No answer. And, erm, here the logic breaks down. Because for some reason this involves calling the fire department and ambulance and stuff. And is a whole big thing. And then they realize the couple is just fine, they’re not unconscious or dead or anything. They were just asleep!
That story you can really tell it’s a kid retelling a story he’s heard. Because would a kid naturally talk about a couple and their relationship and taking a trip and all? And yet it has fire trucks, with lights and sirens. Woohoo! And makes all the hearing people look like idiots.
So, there you go.
K Said,
February 1, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
The hotel one doesn’t make any sense, I agree. Because if you have do not disturb on your door, Housekeeping doesn’t come back. They don’t have time. Plus, um, they have a key.