YOU DON'T NEED WORDS!
A Book About Ways People Talk Without Words
by Ruth Belov Gross & illustrated by Susannah Ryan
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)