I told an “alternative fact”. My apologies to all that I may have unintentionally overlooked and offended. In the throes of my enthusiasm to birth this project I made a misstatement that I have since discovered to be less than accurate. As a result, it is only fair that I issue this correction in order to give credit to those who came before me and blazed the trail I now follow. In my intro, I imply that my story book is the first of its kind. I found no English/ASL books out there, so I wrote one of my own.
At the time, I believed this to be true. As a matter of fact there could still be some truth in it, but I must allow for the possibility that this is only partially true at best. It is true that I searched the shelves of a few Barnes & Noble stores, in the foreign languages and children’s sections for any kind of English/ASL book. Nothing was there. Searching the internet, I found various ASL dictionaries, but still nothing close to the vision in my mind. All carried 4+ star ratings, but still no story books and no bedtime stories.
Then, of course once the universe was satisfied that No Night Night would see the light of day, I discover Stories and Signs with Mr. C., ASL Tales, ABC Baby signs and others! So now I know, I am the one who’s late to the party. I’m the Christopher Columbus, showing up on the shores of America facing the Indians and declaring loudly that “I discovered this land!” To be honest, I haven’t read them. But I’m sure they have many adoring readers. They deserve credit for seeing the same void I did and putting in the work to serve an under-served market. Kudos to those authors who came before me.
There’s room for all of us in this genre and I’m proud to consider myself a contributor. If you are reading this post and you have some favorite English/ASL stories, please list them in the comment section. The world needs to know about them.
‘What difference does it make?’, you might ask. I think it is important to give credit and to recognize the work of others. I’ve learned that writing and publishing even a short children’s book is no small task. Reading and language are so important in the developmental stages, the more material that is available – the better.
No Night Night may not be the first, but it certainly is necessary. The universe wanted me to write this book, so I was led to the conclusion that there was a void to be filled and I was the chosen one to fill it. Who could deny the universe? Had I not believed this, I may not have been as driven to see this endeavor through to completion.
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