I had to use this book for an on line stats class. Perhaps if I was in the class with the instructor who then could have answered my questions about the book it may have been easier to use. As it was I found it very challenging to use and not as self explanatory as the professor seems to have thought. I was glad to be done with it and the course.

I am regularly examining a large number of books in various areas, looking for the "best textbook." In the areas of basic mathematics up through calculus, there is a generic sameness to nearly all of them. Basic statistics is one of those areas and this book is pretty much in the mold of the others. The coverage, both in content and in order, fits what could be considered the basic statistics template. There are a large number of exercises, and solutions to the odd-numbered ones are included in an appendix.
The pages are of very high quality and there are a large number of diagrams. It is very easy on the eyes and in basic statistics, the higher the number of diagrams the better. The quality of the writing is on the higher end of the spectrum, which is a significant point of positive differentiation. While I have to make the final decision, it is likely that I will use this as the textbook in my statistics class this summer.