When you use the right level book for the right level student it is great. There are many other books out there that gloss over all types of grammars, functions, vocab'and pronunciation. However, this does attempt to explore the more important parts of grammar. The grammar is graduated based upon increasing levels of student's ability, which is an important point. Also, I especially like it's drilling of the third person.

It is a good book if you know what you are doing. A text + student does not equal an English lesson. There is more than just the text book in language learning.

I've taught with this text in three different countries... and have sworn by it and it.

What I love about it is that it really gets down to the basics of speaking English and does so in a systematic manner. A lot of teachers abuse it by having their students read and write through it, then complain what a dry book it is. The same teachers also use it in such a haphazard manner that after a year the students are in book one, when really Volumes 1 2 and 3 (especially) are a jump start English course. This however is often the result of either inadequate training or not reading the teacher's manual, especially in Japan where teachers and students come and go by the bushel.

Overall, while the book might lack the "cuteness" of other programs, trust me... the pedagogy is well thought out - - especially if you know how to expand from the book and have other activities to bring the language to life. The book is for adults for example, but using the Molinsky and Bliss WORD BY WORD flash cards I've actually created games for children based on the activities in the book. And if the students are too used to reading through the book (from former teachers) I actually copy the pictures from the book with the words whited out, cut them into flash cards, team them up for pair work, and then let them engage in the conversation activities from the book.

This is an incredible book, and a new version has just come out... USE IT DON'T ABUSE IT and your students will make incredible progress. Check out the WORD BY WORD PICTURE DICTIONARY as a great supplement to expand the activities with additional (yet practical) vocabulary as well as EXPRESSWAYS (also by the same authors).

I have been teaching English for the past seven years, and anything that these two authors write is better than anything out there. I have taught a variety of levels of a variety of students, and this works the best. Any teacher who knows what they're doing will try to use either this book or Expressways as often as possible.

This book is too nice.it presents the lifestyle of Emerson,the great philosopher in a very analytical way.

For thirty years I have coveted a battered copy of Bliss Perry's abbreviated edition of Emerson's Journals which my father carried in his sea bag during World War II. I first read this edition at age fifteen, and now most recently at age forty-four and continue to find much to startle and enlighten.

As a literary figure, Emerson towers over every other American writer. Not just through his own Essays and poetry is the arm of his influence so large, but chiefly through his influence on "disciples" like Thoreau, Whitman and a hundred others. His journals are the mother lode of this rich influence.

There are few greater books to carry in our own sea bags.