Moses Goes to a Concert

Very focused on the deaf children's community in a positive and appropriate light. Useful for Deaf classrooms or for hearing classrooms that are learning about their d/Deaf peers.

As a music teacher I was really excited to find this book. It combinds two seperate worlds into one. Sometimes deaf or hard-of-hearing students never get to experience the world of music, but this book is GREAT at introducing them to music and a famous, deaf, musician. I really like this book and would recomended it to any teacher to help implement music in their deaf ed. class.

My children loved this book. They have just started to read independently, and I enjoy watching them read and watching their hands move as they easily follow the drawings for signed words. They are fascinated with it, and I think the motion as well as reading makes it even more enjoyable. The story is entertaining, and the use of a balloon or stocking feet to feel sound vibrations is very clever. We are not part of the deaf community, but books like this one will help to build a positive attitude in my children toward the deaf community.

Moses' deafness does not prevent him from enjoying a concert nor impede his communication with his classmates; they are deaf too. Their ideas flow freely among each other in American Sign Language. Afterwards, they interact spiritedly with the deaf percussionist who bears more than a passing ressemblance to Evelyn Glennie, the true-life celebrity deaf musician. While the kids have a stimulating field trip, we see that where there is language (no matter the form) and understanding, deafness is no disability. In fact, they go confidently into a domain one would think a bastion of hearing people -- the concert hall -- both as patron and star performer. Could the lone deaf child struggling in an all-hearing school have it this good? With light-hearted watercolor illustrations, this book is a uniquely positive portrayal of deaf children, at home in the "hearing" world and with themselves. Destined to be a watershed work, it may very well be the only juvenile trade book currently on the market addressing deafness without obliging the protagonist (of any age) to be an isolated individual in a social sea of moving lips, bereft of the playful and loving relationships many deaf children enjoy in a portable environment where signing is the preferred means of communication.

Parallel to the story of a teacher taking a class of deaf students to a symphony performance, is a cartoon-strip of the main character showing sentences in the manual alphabet. The percussionist is also deaf and shows the students the instruments after the performance. Readers will discover how "normal" life can be for this segment of our disabled population and they will enjoy learning sign language words like balloons and vibrations. This is especially useful for teachers and parents to encourage hearing students to accept and interact with hearing impaired peers, cousins, etc. A wonderfully innovative book. We need more like this.