Jessi's Secret Language (GN#12)

 Publication Date: 2021

Ghostwriter? No, the text copyright is for Ann M. Martin.

Illustrator: Chan Chau

Synopsis:

The plot is, as expected, pretty much like the non-graphic version. 

Also, my camera kept screwing up the colors. The actual book has much better colors.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: chips, yet again; also Gummi worms:

Jessi always wakes up just before her alarm. She and Becca are always shown wearing silk sleeping caps, which is common among people with textured hair like Black people, to keep their hair healthy:

Their Families: 

Jessi's family at breakfast:

The Club (and clients): 

New BSC picture, without Stacey:

SMS: nothing new

PSA Time: nothing stood out

Misc:

Martin dedicates this book to Cary.

Epstein dedicates it to "Danya, Alice, Maddi, Harry, Ben, Brando, and Thomas. And to the lovely Erik, who helped carry me through the making of this book."

There's also a note thanking Lynne Kelly for "lending her expertise during the making of this book." Right by that is a note that while the book's font is all upper-case, it's appropriate to capitalize the word Deaf when referring to a person or to Deaf culture--essentially, if you're using it the way you'd describe an Irish or Japanese person or culture.

The book does a good job with ASL, including necessary pieces such as the importance of facial expression, and even addresses the syntax difference between ASL and spoken English (the former is object-subject-verb while the latter is subject-verb-object and ASL doesn't use articles or auxiliary verbs and tense is inferred; e.g.; "Ball boy kick" vs "The boy kicked the ball"). It also shows Jessi's name sign, which now makes more sense than the description in the original book.

Jessi's ballet school with Madame Noelle: