Customer Reviews

Cartoon Guide To Statistics

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was listed as an optional textbook for an introductory statistics class, placing it on a shelf in the campus bookstore next to a book I needed to buy. My eye was attracted by the cartoon cover and, after a quick scan, I decided to buy it. It was worth it.

Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith cover the same content as many introductory statistics books. The eleven core chapters cover basic statistical concepts, the nature of data, and the essentials of probability, random variables, distributions, sampling, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, comparing samples, designing experiments and regression. It is a lot of material that flows quickly. The final chapter introduces "a biased sample" of advanced statistical techniques. A bibliography--reasonably up-to-date when the book was published--points the reader on to further learning about statistics.

The book's title gives the fun part away. The authors use the panel-by-panel presentation style and humorous asides of cartoons as their primary mode of presentation. This works surprisingly well. It makes readers--particularly those intimidated by statistics--comfortable and ready to just read the panels. An instructionally useful side effect is the repeated use of graphical rather than textual definitions of statistical concepts. The tongue-in-cheek humor reinforces the relaxing experience of reading cartoons and eases the learning experience.

I have never required this book as a text for a statistics class. But I have listed it as an optional text and I have loaned it to a student or two. It is good therapy for those afraid of their first statistics class. And it's a fun read for those who have already passed this hurdle.

"The Cartoon Guide to Statistics" by Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith was published in 1993. This book is a good introductory level look at Statistics. The authors cover what Statistics is, what the history of the subject is, and a look at some theories, terms, and applications of the subject.

The weakness of the book is that there are a lot of formulas given, and not enough discussion of the formulas, so one would need to use other statistics texts to supplement the material, so this book cannot stand alone in that respect. On the other hand, if one is just trying to get an overview, there is a lot to skip over. The authors do make fun of the formulas, and the amount of math so those that are looking for an overview may enjoy the humorous presentation. There is also a lot to do with the subject that the book covers. It does cover probabilities, but when it comes to distributions it really focuses on Standard Normal distributions. I don't believe it ever mentions Uniform, Poisson, or other types of distributions which most statistic courses do cover.

The best part of the book is the examples, some of which are carried through for several chapters to help the reader better understand the subject. Although, even with the examples they are a bit inconsistent in how complete they are. For example, in one case they started to discuss the use of statistics to compare the salaries of male and female employees in the same job, but they never completed the discussion. The examples of racial bias in jury selection, and the gas mileage comparison of two different types of gas are much better. This is a decent book, but not up to the level of Gonick's excellent "Cartoon History of the Universe" series, and not strong enough to give it more than three stars.

If you want to learn complicated things like statistics, but are feeling quite overwhelmed by the complexity, I highly recommend you learn visually from a book like this. Larry has a great sense of humor and is a creative genius.

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated

I read this book because I had to take a Linear Regression stats class, and I lacked the pre-requisite knowledge of basic statistics. After attempting to skim some of the 800 page intro books in the library, I decided to give this one a try.

It contains everything you need to know about introductory statistics. Some things are a little unclear, but this stems from the fact that the author's did not want to burden the reader with the derivations of the basic equations. So at the expense of some clarity, they cut out a lot of junk that you will never need, probably even if your major is statistics.

So even though you may need to supplement this book with a more detailed book, and even though the cartoons are far from funny, I give this book 5 stars because it is simply the best intro that you will find. You could easily get through an introductory college course with this book alone, and its a shame more courses don't try to do that.

I am math phobic and taking Statistics in college made me wonder if I was one of those people who "wasn't cut-out for college". But I got this book and it made statistics fun and a lot less intimidating. After college, an interviewer asked me about Bayes Theorum and I immediately pictured the illustration from the book! Recently, while studying for the GMAT, I recalled the fun lessons from the book - especially probability and nailed that section of the test.
This would be great for High School or college students or ANYONE who is intimidated by math or stats.

This is a delightful book that explains the fundamentals of statistics very well. Relying more on images rather than formulas, the authors manage to include all of the necessary statistics formulas without appearing to do so. The cartoons are very well drawn, with some very humorous situations being described. In terms of a positive combination of explaining statistics in a non-threatening way, it is the best that I have seen. I am teaching basic statistics for the first time in fifteen years this summer, and I will recommend it to any student who is having difficulty.

This book is a super review for anyone who took stats years ago but needs something to jog their memory. In addition, it is a wonderful "Cliff's Notes" guide for those taking there first stats class. I wish I had this book when I was an undergraduate! A must read for stats takers!

the ability to apply stats to real world issues/problems/investigations/research is great

Gosh this is a great book! I was a complete number phobic before grabbing this book to help me out with a statistics course. It helped remove the "black box" mystique and "I suck at math" perceptions that were causing me to avoid mathematics. With the help of this book (and a rather nifty statistics professor at TESC) I moved on to become a statistics tutor. This book taught me that math can be fun, easy to comprehend, and not scary at all! Viva the Cartoon Guide to Statistics!!!

I disagree with the reviewer who thought the book was not useful for those without a grasp of basic statistics. Gonick presents the material in a comical, yet cogent manner designed specifically for those who might otherwise never grasp WHY and HOW they might use statistics.

The truth is most college level statistics courses start with the development of a theory and only move to practical applications if there is time. Gonick presents a series of real-world problems and works backwards to the theory; a method I have seen work well in the business world. The book is not meant to be an exhaustive resource for graduate level statistics and analysis, but rather a better way for educated users to grasp the application of statistics to understandable problems.

We used this book to help acclimate freshly minted graduates to statistical analysis in banking, financial services and marketing. Every person to whom we gave a copy was very pleased with the book.