This book is just the kind of product that we have to come to expect from DK Publishing Group - full of rich graphics and colors. The book has been written for Excel 2000, and not XP. Nevertheless, the concepts discussed in the book are very basic to the spreadsheet application from Microsoft, and hence, relevant regardless of the version.

The book is clearly meant for an absolute beginner, and anyone with more than a few weeks of experience with Excel 2000 will find this book passable. But this book is capable of having a novice up and running with Excel in no time. Explanations are lucid, simple, and free of boring and unnecessary technical jargon. The author has taken the pain of discussing even the minutest steps when explaining a feature/function. But alas! The book's fault lies not in the form, but the substance, i.e. in its coverage of the subject matter. It covers only the very basic steps in understanding and working with formulas, errors, and functions. The book could have easily spanned a few more topics that would have enriched the experience and knowledge of the readers.

Anyways! This book is a good reference to keep on one's shelf - atleast until the time that one gets fluent with the tricks and trades of Excel.

I was very disappointed to find that out of 11,001 names for African-American children, there weren't many I found that were African-American based. Though just about every name in the book was a name of at least one African-American, many had European roots. The names I found most interesting (under the new name section) had no meanings and naming my child with a name that has known meaning to me is very important.

It's also a little outdated. Khalid Muhammad is listed as a national representative of the Nation of Islam and anyone who's up on current events knows that that fact is no longer true.

The names in this book were inspirational to me while my husband and I were looking for just the right name for our son. It was important to us to choose a name that would honor our son's ancestors and older brothers in the black community, but still be unique and true to him. This is a great resource for black parents and I will definitely use it again when our family grows!