When Our Hands Do the Talking
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Dancing Hands was published in the United States by Chronicle Books. The all-Filipina team behind it are Joanna Que and Charina Marquez (authors), Fran Alvarez (illustrator), and Karen Llagas (English translation). (Photo by Claire Mercado-Obias)
Dancing Hands: A Story of Friendship in Filipino Sign Language by Joanna Que and Charina Marquez, with Fran Alvarez (illustrator) and Karen Llagas (translator). Room to Read and Chronicle Books, 2023.
This is the story of Dancing Hands written by Joanna Que and Charina Marquez, with illustrations by Fran Alvarez. Originally published in Tagalog as Sayaw ng Mga Kamay by Adarna House in the Philippines, the theme’s universality encouraged Room to Read and Chronicle Books to release a global edition.
Illustrator Fran Alvarez and author Joanna Que with their book Sayaw ng Mga Kamay, a product of Room to Read Children’s Book Workshop. (Photo courtesy of Joanna Que)
The English version was translated by Karen Llagas. The book recently received two awards, The Schneider Family Book Award at the 2024 Youth Media Awards, and the 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honor.
Karen Llagas (Photo by Bruno Soleri)
Sayaw ng Mga Kamay
“In 2019, I was invited by Adarna House to join the Room to Read Children’s Book Workshop,” describes author Joanna Que. “We were asked to think of topics relating to themes of inclusivity and difficult situations. I decided that I would write about Deaf culture and Filipino Sign Language.”
Some encounters that made her want to feature a Deaf character include reading the non-fiction book Seeing Voices by the late neurologist Oliver Sacks. It allowed her to see sign language in a whole new light. The book focuses on how sign language has greatly transformed the way the Deaf communicate and express themselves, and how it paved the way to better learning, thus opening a lot of doors for the deaf community.
“I also attended an event about creating a fully abled nation that aimed to empower people with disabilities to vote in the Philippine elections. During the event, we heard inspiring stories of people with disabilities who were breaking barriers. There were also discussions about their struggles and the need for more inclusivity, accessibility, and representation.”
The event sparked a desire in Joanna to find ways to empower people with disabilities. She is also an observer of how Deaf communities communicate through sign language. “It’s amazing to see them fully expressing themselves through sign and witness how they communicate in their own language. This was how I associated the movements of their hands and expressions of their faces to dancing and music,” she explains.
“With everyone’s help during the workshop, I was able to flesh out the characters and the story's beginning, middle, and end which resulted in the draft of Sayaw ng mg Kamay, and it was then given to Fran to be illustrated,” adds Joanna.
How does one approach the images when a Deaf character is part of the story?
Illustrator Fran Alvarez says, “From my initial sketches, it was clear that I wanted to distinguish the characters from each other visually by making their height and hair different, and use these elements to reflect their personalities, too.”
The illustrations in Dancing Hands were rendered in colored pencils and graphite by Fran Alvarez. (Photo courtesy of Fran Alvarez)
Alvarez also wanted to make them look like regular cheerful friends and equals, and not depict the disabled character with the assumption that she’s unhappy with her life or anything like that. “I watched a lot of Filipino Sign Language videos repeatedly. I sketched along so I could familiarize myself with the vocabulary and the movements.”
The most powerful pages in the book are the ones without words, just images. You can hear the silence and focus on the characters’ hands and faces.
In 2020, Sayaw ng Mga Kamay was published by Adarna House and was one of the new titles produced for the first Room to Read Philippines project.
According to Alfredo Santos, Associate Director of Room to Read’s Literacy Program, “For the past 22 years, Room to Read has applied our unique expertise as a nonprofit global publisher of diverse children’s books to sustain children’s literacy development and address the lack of reading materials for children in historically underserved communities.”
As part of its Literacy Program, Room to Read partners with local publishers, authors, and illustrators in more than 23 countries to create and distribute engaging, relevant, and local language children's books that early readers can access and enjoy.
“Dancing Hands celebrates the discovery of friendship through the Filipino sign language, presenting a powerful story of inclusion. Diverse children’s books introduce young learners to the magic of reading and prove that they can turn their dreams into reality. Books can serve as windows and mirrors,” says Santos.
“When children have access to reading materials that reflect their own identities and cultures, they can find validation in their lived experiences and learn to empathize and understand those around them,” he adds.
From Local to Global
In 2023, Dancing Hands was published in the U.S. by Chronicle Books. Karen Llagas, a lecturer at UC Berkeley, translated the book into English while keeping the original’s lyrical spirit.
“Meanwhile, Charina Marquez was invited to be my co-author. Charina, who is part of the Filipino Deaf Community, co-wrote the back matter portion of the book with me,” says Joanna. This section of the book describes Filipino Sign Language and sign languages around the world.
Charina Marquez, co-author of Dancing Hands, was born Deaf. She holds a degree in Visual Communication from the University of the Philippines, and has worked as an animator, art restorer, and graphic designer before opening Silent Baker Charina, her very own cake and pastry business. (Photo courtesy of Charina Marquez)
Charina who was born Deaf recalls, “When I was younger, I thought I was the only Deaf person in the world. This was before I learned sign language. It was a challenge growing up. Everyone in my family had to learn basic sign language to communicate with me. They enrolled me in one of the best schools for hearing-impaired children in Quezon City where I gained a lot of friends and became more comfortable with myself.”
Some people are very sympathetic to Charina’s situation and are very accommodating. Most people are courteous and try to find an alternative way to communicate with her. They use basic sign language or gesture with rudimentary signs.
“I use multiple ways to communicate like writing on paper, gestures, and texting. I had to learn some lip reading to be able to understand some people who can’t communicate any other way,” Charina admits.
“The most powerful pages in the book are the ones without words, just images. You can hear the silence and focus on the characters’ hands and faces. ”
She believes that societies can be more inclusive of the hearing impaired by teaching basic sign language in early childhood education. “Even if every child learns just how to spell the alphabet with their hands, this will greatly help make ways for deaf people to belong. Sign language is actually very useful even for non-deaf people,” recommends Charina.
A few tweaks were made to the illustrations of Dancing Hands. “One of the big differences for the U.S. version was we worked with more resource persons like sensitivity readers, and we got our co-author Charina on board, too,” relates Alvarez. They meticulously went through the book and determined which parts to improve.
The end papers of Dancing Hands teach basic Filipino Sign Language. (Photo by Claire Mercado-Obias)
One example is adding eyebrows and mouths to the characters’ faces, because even though sign language mostly focuses on hand and arm movements, facial expressions are also integral to specific words. Adding those also made the characters look more expressive. “I also learned about hand dominance in sign language and switched up some drawings so it’s consistent throughout the book which hand is the character’s dominant hand when signing,” Fran elaborates.
“My favorite addition to the U.S. version are the new endpapers. The Filipino version had an illustrated glossary page at the end. For the U.S. version, we expanded it and made a pattern out of the spot illustrations of signing with both English and Filipino labels. I like the impact it has when you first open the book, how it adds an educational use,” adds Fran.
A Lesson in Empathy
The children’s book writer Malorie Blackman said, “Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” Dancing Hands offers just that. The book has the kindest of intentions -- to give a voice to those who, in the very literal sense, have none. It’s a perfect entry point to teach children about our differences and how small efforts can make everyone feel acknowledged and supported.
Claire Mercado-Obias is a writer, food stylist and pastry chef based in New Jersey.
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