Although this book does not provide you with a large number of helpful strategies or tips for understanding the TOEIC test (unless becoming more familiar with late-1970s tacky fashion styles is part of the TOEIC--check out the photos), it is the most important book to have for your TOEIC test preparation journey. This guide, prepared by ETS, is the only one that can give you practice with “real” TOEIC material. Test-preparation guides prepared by other companies try to approximate ETS’ style, but they can never match the exact difficulty level of an actual ETS test. In addition, for (amount), TOEIC Official Test-Preparation Guide includes an ample number of practice exercises: There are two mini-tests, two complete tests, and practice questions for each of the seven sections. The authors include explanations for all of the answers too, which is always helpful. Working through all of this material should give you a decent understanding of and preparation for the TOEIC test. The major drawback of TOEIC Official Test Preparation Guide, as stated above, is that it doesn’t really help you understand how the TOEIC is constructed (i.e. which grammar points are tested in Parts 5 and 6, what types of questions are most frequently asked in the listening section, etc.). However, since most of the material on the TOEIC is assessing your genuine level of English fluency, “tricks” such as this probably won’t help you in the long run. If you’re only going to purchase one book to prepare yourself for the TOEIC test, it should probably be this one.

This is a cute book with a math lesson intertwined, but not much of a plot. We being with 20 guinea pigs on a boat, ten fall off and the math problem of (20-10) is in large type across the page, we turn the page to discover the answer of 10. We then continue to subtract one at a time until there are no more guinea pigs left. The problems are written on one 2-page spread, while the answers on the next leaving time for children to speculate and figure out the answer. The numbers are written large and clearly with the characters even interacting with them. The correct number of guinea pigs is also present and it is evident how many, and which one is being subtraction.

This book has served me well as a good introduction to subtraction in my kindergarten class. I would recommend it for that purpose and for children to peruse on their own, but it is not meant for story-time.

Why 3 stars?: The book serves its purpose well and the drawings are cute and entertaining. However, the minus and equal signs can be hard to see and the page design makes the story discontinuous.

My 3 year old son loves books, and this one is a favorite. He loves the names of all the characters, and enjoys talking about their antics as they leave the scene one by one. This is a book that has a lot of activity, and it presents a pretty easily grasped concept of subtraction. My son isn't quite ready for math yet, but the exposure is great. I can't imagine why a child wouldn't have fun with this one.

This book is the best I've found for introducing your child to subtraction without letting him know you're teaching him something. (If you have a child who thinks he knows it all or thinks school is where you learn and home is where you play, this is very important.) The book is especially good for helping a child see that you can subtract by counting back, not just by taking some away and then counting to see how many are left, which takes longer. And besides that, the illustrations are whimsical and colorful. My daughters find the pictures very endearing and like the guinea pigs' names. Having already read "One Guinea Pig Is Not Enough," they enjoyed seeing further adventures of the mischievous guinea pigs in this book.