Don McNamara, known as "Grandpa Don," will be signing copies of his books at the Tucson Festival of Books March 9th and 10th, 2013.
Read this excellent review from the Arizona Daily Star on Fun with Abby & Alyssa, to learn more about Don McNamara's journey creating these books and how you can buy them.
"On behalf of Hasbro Children's Hospital, I would like to say thank you for your generous donation of sign language books. Fun with Abby & Alyssa will be a welcomed addition to the Family Resource Center's collection. The entertaining yet educational format is delightful and will be a hit with both the children and their parents. I took the liberty of sharing the second set of books with our early intervention department. They were excited to be able to utilize the books with their young, special needs population".
"Thank you for your gift of your sign language books to the Jowonio School....We have put them in our library for teachers to borrow for their classrooms. This year we have a number of students with significant disabilities for whom signing is a helpful strategy. In fact, we find it useful for all our preschoolers!....Good luck with the work you are doing!.."
"They are perfect for teaching young children sign language. I really like you how based them on themes making it easy for teachers to incorporate them in the classroom and making it easy for kids to learn signs for an particular area of interest for them. I also like how the words and illustrations are simple enough that kids can use them and revisit them on their own to practice the signs".
Kristy Davies, Sign Language Instructor, Hear My Hands
"What I liked:
The child focus (so many signing books are focused on infants right now that it's refreshing to see something for the next age group).
The text and pictorial description of how to sign each sign.
The "What" questions allows for great processing skills development and language expansion. Moreover, if the child reading the book has a language processing delay or impairment, she or he will still be able to answer the question because of the visual prompt (the answer right there on the bottom of the page -- see the picture for the example - the question is asked and the picture of the lion is presented to assist in answering the question. Now I know others may not think that much into it but being a speech therapist I truly appreciate it".
Libby Quinn, Instructor, Sign With Baby Tucson
"The Fun with Abby & Alyssa ® series is FANTASTIC! These books are fun, colorful and easy to read which makes them a great choice of learning literature for our children. Another reason why they are so enjoyable is that the topics are absolutely relevant to a child's own environment and interests with books on zoo animals, family members, colors and more! My two-year old loves to read them over and over again! I highly recommend these books".
Martin Fox, Ph.D., CEO, Playability toys
"I am thrilled to welcome the Abby and Alyssa book series to the PlayAbility Toys family. Grandpa Don's heart-felt stories that teach sign language are a perfect addition to the products we create to help children with special needs".