Boogie Bass, Sign Language Star Read online

  When she let him go, she took his face in her hands and looked into his eyes.

  “I have to admit I was surprised when you told us you were picked to be the emcee. I guess I just thought…”

  She let the sentence trail off, but Boogie finished it for her.

  “You thought it would be Nolan. Because Nolan is better at everything than I am, right? He wouldn’t forget to close a door so Bear wouldn’t chew Doggie-Dog. He wouldn’t break your favorite vase doing indoor luge.”

  His voice came out more wobbly than he wanted it to.

  “Oh, Boogie,” his mother said.

  Now her voice was the one that sounded wobbly.

  “Oh, honey, people say things they don’t really mean all the time when they’re upset. Boogie, look at me. Who’s the big brother who can get Bing to smile and laugh when nobody else can? Who’s the big brother who knew how much Bing needed a new Doggie-Dog and somehow made that happen? When even his own mother didn’t? Who’s the kid I’m so very proud of today?”

  “Me?” Boogie asked.

  “You,” his mother said.

  Bing was sitting on the floor now, with Doggie-Dog facing him. He pointed to himself, crossed both hands across his heart, and pointed at Doggie-Dog.

  “Who taught him to do that?” Boogie’s mother asked. “Never mind, I know the answer to that one.”

  Copying Bing, she signed to Boogie, as Bing had signed to Doggie-Dog: I love you.

  Boogie didn’t need to sign anything in reply. He could feel his great big smile saying everything.

  Some Facts about Sign Language

  There are approximately seventy million Deaf people worldwide and (by some estimates) three hundred different sign languages.

  Sign language differs from country to country, even when two countries speak the same language. In fact, American Sign Language has more in common with French Sign Language than it does with British Sign Language, because it was developed with the assistance of Frenchman Laurent Clerc.

  In American Sign Language, the alphabet is signed using just one hand. But in some other sign languages, such as British Sign Language, two hands are used. Most sign languages use less finger-spelling than ASL, and some don’t use finger-spelling at all.

  When you are asking a question in ASL related to who, where, what, why, and when, keep your eyebrows down. When you are asking a yes/no question, or a rhetorical question (a question where you don’t really expect an answer), keep your eyebrows up.

  The signs of American Sign Language don’t stand for English words, but for their meanings. So the English word right has two meanings: one is the opposite of wrong, the other is the opposite of left. These have two different signs in ASL, just as they do in many languages other than English.

  When you are talking to a Deaf person, speak directly to them, looking them in the eye, even if an interpreter is there. It is rude to look at the interpreter while speaking, as if the Deaf person wasn’t there.

  Dogs that cannot hear (as well as dogs with Deaf owners) can learn to obey simple sign-language commands just as hearing dogs can obey simple spoken commands.

  In a study to see if gorillas can communicate using human language, even though their vocal cords cannot form spoken words, Koko the gorilla learned more than a thousand signs of what her caregiver, Francine Patterson, called Gorilla Sign Language. But Koko was never able to learn the complex grammar of any sign language (the rules for how words should be put together in sentences). Only human beings can do that.

  If you want to learn more about sign language, especially how to make particular signs, there are many resources online where you can see exactly how to do this. Make sure you find videos by credentialed ASL teachers, particularly members of the Deaf community. One good one is the American Sign Language University website at lifeprint.com.

  Acknowledgments

  My beloved editor, Margaret Ferguson, has an uncanny gift for figuring out what each book needs to help it be the best and truest version of itself. Then, just when I think I have the book in its final, flawless form, Chandra Wohleber offers insightful corrections I would cringe to have missed. Brilliant illustrator Grace Zong knows my characters even better than I do and makes them look exactly as I imagined them, only more so. Kerry Martin created an adorable design for the entire After-School Superstars series that makes me pick up each title with a tingle of happiness.

  My superstar agent, Stephen Fraser, cheers me on just as supportively as Nolan, Nixie, and Vera encourage Boogie. Writer friends offered critiques on crucial drafts: heartfelt thanks to the Writing Roosters (Jennifer Bertman, Jennifer Sims, Laura Perdew, Vanessa Appleby, and especially Tracy Abell) and to Leslie O’Kane.

  I give special thanks to Kayla O’Connor for helping me research sign-language camps for hearing kids and come up with some of the activities featured in the story. St. Bernadette Catholic Parish in Lakewood, Colorado, allowed me to sit in on several sessions of their Beginning American Sign Language Video Course, taught by instructor Sue Metz and teaching assistant Tom Metz, with interpreter Jeanie Mamula. It was a gift to be taught by these two Deaf instructors. The course made use of the ASL video Meet the Bravo Family, which inspired the videos Boogie watches in his camp.

  Finally, Renate Rose from Gallaudet University read the entire draft of the manuscript and offered fabulously helpful suggestions to make sure that ASL and Deaf culture were presented accurately and with respect. I am beyond grateful to her for this assistance.

  Claudia Mills is the acclaimed author of more than sixty books for children, including the Franklin School Friends series and the middle-grade novel Zero Tolerance. She recently received the Kerlan Award. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

  Grace Zong has illustrated many books for children, including Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim and Mrs. McBee Leaves Room 3 by Gretchen Brandenburg McLellan. She divides her time between South Korea and New York.