You Don't Need Words: A Book About Ways People Talk Without Words - Hardcover

An easily read survey of nonverbal communication: facial expressions (but not unconscious body language); familiar gestures like beckoning and more formal hand and arm signals; gestures common to Native Americans and people using American Sign; others that mean quite different things in different cultures (in Swaziland, a throat-cutting motion means ``I love you''); pictures, picture-writing, and nonverbal signage; signal flags, etc. The book is not carefully organized--Gross skips from one subject to another, then reverts to an earlier one--but it includes a fair amount of useful information. Ryan's illustrations are undistinguished but clear and serviceable- -except for one inexcusable nonverbal message: a particularly obnoxious caricature of a stereotypical librarian. An adequate concept book on a subject of interest. Nonfiction/Picture book. 6-10) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This 48-page picture book attempts to present a simple social history of nonverbal communication; unfortunately it suffers from faulty organization and design. Considerable material is covered here, to be sure: sign language (as used by both Native Americans and the deaf), body language, pictograms, flags, street and directional signs, and more. The information is in fact so wide-ranging as to require greater amplification and better means of accessing it--there is neither index nor table of contents. And the final eight pages, "some extra information," seem an afterthought. Additionally, while Ryan's ink-and-wash paintings have spirit, the information they are meant to convey is often indistinct. The inclusion of three pages of photographs, together with numerous black-and-white pictograms, is out of sync with the rest of the book. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.