Nita's First Signs - (Little Hands Signing) by Kathy MacMillan (Board Book)

About the Book

One of Book Riot's 6 Best Baby Sign Language Books for Parents

Book Synopsis

Baby sign language makes it easy to communicate with your child, and Nita makes it fun! Nita's First Signs teaches ten essential signs for every parent and child to know, including eat, more, hungry, milk, all done, ball, play, love, please, and thank you. A simple story about Nita and her parents teaches each sign in context, and repetition throughout each story makes them easy to practice. Even better, each page slides open to reveal accurate instructions on how to make each sign, plus tabs on the side of each page make it simple to locate every sign for later reference. Baby sign language collections aren't complete without Nita!

Review Quotes

"Nita's First Signs" is a wonderful introduction to the world of American Sign Language for children. The book is not only entertaining and creative with it's depiction of signs, it encourages the reader to go to a video source as a means to reinforce the signs learned -through real time instruction. In the end, Nita's First Signs demonstrates the value and fun of learning sign language for ALL infants, toddlers children AND adults, regardless of whether they are Deaf or hearing or hard of hearing.

"Nita's First Signs is a wonderful introduction to the world of American Sign Language for children. The book is not only entertaining and creative with its depiction of signs, it encourages the reader to go to a video source as a means to reinforce the signs learned -through real-time instruction. In the end, Nita's First Signs demonstrates the value and fun of learning sign language for ALL infants, toddlers children AND adults, regardless of whether they are Deaf or hearing or hard of hearing."
-Marlee Matlin, actress, author, and activist

"This unique and fabulous book teaches ten popular ASL signs to enable basic communication between babies who are not yet talking and their parents. Ten commonly used words (such as more, thank you, all done, please, eat, and hungry) are highlighted. Slide-out panels contain simple instructions along with pictures that name and illustrate each sign. Color-coded tabs will help parents easily find the signs they are looking for. In addition to being beautifully illustrated, the construction of this book is amazing. This book will appeal to children and adults of all ages for the simple story, the lovely illustrations, and the access to American Sign Language that it provides."
-Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen, Executive Director, Mother Goose on the Loose, LLC

"Choosing to teach your baby sign language can open the door to meaningful communication earlier than expected and help defray frustration in the future. Nita's First Signs is a wonderful way to start that journey with your child."
--Alison H. Scott, MD, FAAP, founder/CEO of Baby Doc Box

About the Author

Kathy MacMillan is a nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter, writer, teacher, librarian, and storyteller. She is the author of the board books Nita's First Signs and Nita's Day (Familius), children's nonfiction book She Spoke: 14 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World (Familius), the young adult novels Sword and Verse and Dagger and Coin (HarperTeen), and nine books for parents, librarians, and educators, including Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together (Huron Street Press).

Sara Brezzi, Italian surface pattern designer and illustrator, was born and raised in the small town of Poppi, near Florence. She still lives there with her partner and their little boy. Her father was a librarian and her mother was a kindergarten teacher, so she grew up surrounded by beautiful books and images. This certainly influenced her imagination. She graduated from the University of Siena with a BA in preservation of cultural heritage and history of illustration, but she always preferred the application over the theory of art. Her designs are hand drawn and then scanned in for processing and color management. She loves creating colorful illustrations by combining cheerful and quirky elements to convey a positive vibe and spread joy!