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Rating: 
Summary: A good book for its purpose ... to teach you about CS
Review: Don't be fooled by the Hawaiians ... this book is not as bad as the previous reviewers say it is, by any stretch of the imagination. Three professors from my school wrote this book (which, some would argue, biases me, but I've never met them...) and I must say, it is much better at teaching CS principles than the C++ book I had to read for my Intro to CS class at Eastern Illinois University. The author tries to make you think in a CS mindset, without going to fast or overloading you with Java particulars. Granted, I thought the book started out slowly, but as it got more advanced, it introduced topics at a good pace. Don't be mislead: This book is not for Java programming ... it's for introducing you to what a computer scientist does. And I think it does a great job at doing it.
Rating: 
Summary: A mis-introduction...
Review: I'm an instructor at a small university and am teaching with the Kamin book. I have received several negative comments from my students about the quality of its instruction, and (now) tend to agree with them. Many of them have given up on Kamin and bought either the Deitel and Deitel book or the Lemay book in hopes to overcome the book's apparent lack of JAVA! instruction (and worry about the computer concepts later). This may seem the opposite approach of what the author took (computer science first, then JAVA!), but by doing this, students are less likely to become frustrated and will have some skills before tackling CS problems. Students have said "the book is more confusing than enlightening", that the book "doesn't give enough examples" (when it does, the word 'wrong' is plastered behind them), and when they read the text they "feel like [they] have fallen off of a cliff". Others said things that should not be posted to a publicly readable web site. If you intend to teach computer science using the JAVA! language (or any language), I recommend choosing a more user-friendly textbook that covers the language before the CS specifics. By doing this, I believe the students will be more capable of focusing on CS topics (by overcoming the syntax phobia - which most students worry about) and then naturally extending into more complex problems. No flames, please..
Rating:
Summary: This book SUCKS!
Review: I'm currently a Computer Science major at the University of Memphis and unfortunately they used this book for their Introduction to Computer Science class. Sad to say, I failed the class because this book failed me! There's only so much that a professor can explain and you will need a reliable text, well written, with lots of examples on java programming to supplement the lectures. However, this awful text does not explain the basics of programming but instead bombards you with Computer Science concepts that are way over a beginner's head. It was useless to all of students in the class and nearly everyone had to go out and buy a second book, like "Headfirst Java" by Kathy Sierra. However, after spending $108.00 on this book, I refused to go out and purchase another text. So as the semester progressed and the students who'd purchase a different book grasped the programming concepts, I still grappled with this garbage and ultimately failed the class. So BEWARE, THIS BOOK SUCKS!
Rating:
Summary: This is a reasonably good CS1 textbook.
Review: Many textbooks that try to teach intro cs using Java get distracted by Java syntax and miss some important conceptual material. This book does a pretty good job of covering what I think is the core of an intro cs class. One of its strengths is a series of Debugging Alerts that warn students about the most common errors. I used Lewis and Loftus' book in a previous semester and thought this book was much more readable.
Rating:
Summary: This book SUCKS!
Review: Of course, they talk about getting JDK from Sun website in the *preface*. If you want to start out on your own this book is a good place to do that. A page of minor errata is available from Kamin's website, which perhaps bothered previous readers. Good book with a conversational style.
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