This is a useful weather field guide because it spends most time illustrating regular weather phenomena. By that, I mean it spends most time on the various types of clouds, "garden-variety" thunderstorms, and ordinary optical phenomena like rainbows, irridescence, halo(e)s, and the like - the kind of stuff you're most likely to see if you glance out your bedroom window of a morning, or . . . whatever. (It's hard not to sound corny there!)Also, the text goes into how such phenomena comes about, which is useful.

There are also useful appendices like the Beaufort scale, and tornado safety rules in the back.

The only drawbacks are, the fact that this isn't a full-color guide - the color plates have been segregated to an insert around the middle of the book (although it still makes up about a fifth of the book); also, the illustration of severe weather is rather limited. We don't see features of a severe thunderstorm, or satellite images of a hurricane at its various stages of intensity, or the forms a tornado can take, or where one can form - we only have photos of distant, non-severe looking cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) clouds, a view of clouds around a hurricane taken from a plane (which isn't the perspective either a satellite or someone on the groud is going to have), and one photo of a tornado chosen for its historical merit only (it being the "first photo taken of a tornado," near Howard, SD on 8/28/1884 - an older photo, taken near either Garnett or Westphalia, KS on 4/26/1884, has since been found).
[Regarding the thunderstorm/tornado images, I realize this isn't supposed to be a NOAA spotter's guide, therefore gospel, but a variety of images helps.]

But if a lack of color doesn't bother you, and you know your severe storms (or they don't bother you, either), this is a good field guide to have.

"I had to read it for school. and I hated it!" seems to be the common theme, here. As a middle school teacher, I can vouch for the observable fact that many many children 1. hate to read (sad) and 2. hate to read - even more - what they are told to read. Shane, while now somewhat dated, was a classic in it's time, and often imitated. One direct imitation is the Clint Eastwood movie, "Pale Rider", which serves as a wonderful comparison piece. As far as the young reviewers not being able to "understand" the novel "Shane", one can only ask if TV has destroyed their brain cells, or if they can't understand how Shane and Marion resisted their temptation to be with each other at the expense of friend and husband Joe Starret. In today's age, such restraint must surely seem confusing. A fine, easy- to- read book.

This remains my favorite book, and I've read thousands, literally, over the years, including some pretty sophisticated stuff (I have an M.A. in American History from Columbia). I saw the movie when it first came out. I was a New York City area kid then, and I fell in love with the Tetons where it was filmed. I then bought the book and loved it. I was captured very early by the scene involving Shane and Joe Starrett and Ledyard, the phony salesman. When Ledyard asks Starrett how he can take the word of a stranger, Shane, Starrett responds: "I can figure men for myself. I'll take his word on anything he wants to say any day of God's whole year." I still get chills re-reading those words; I still strive to live so others might say that of me. Can there be any higher praise? So... read it, and give it to your kids. If you have brought them up right, Shane will become one of their heroes and perhaps they will "grow strong and straight" as Shane wishes for young Joey Starrett in the book.

Considering that you'll reread this book countless times, it's a great investment which will amortize over the years. "Shane" is a great western, and beyond that, great literature, in the vein of "The Virginian". Schaefer has the truly great writers' gift of painting vivid pictures with simple writing. He tells this story through the eyes of a youth, living in the west during the time that open-range ranchers were contending with homesteaders for grazing land. The enigmatic Shane rides into the boy's life one afternoon and becomes part of the life of his frontier family. He shoots, rides, does anything with effortless perfection, yet he is not at peace with himself. When an ugly land war invades the community, Shane's presence in the valley helps level the playing field. As he becomes personally involved in the disturbances, even those whose interests he sustains are sharply divided over the desirability of his presence in the region. Is he their savior, or a villain with trouble on his coattails? This is a great story that belongs in every home library.