Rating: 
Summary: A terrific book
Review: "The Cartoon Guide to Genetics" is one of my favorite books. When I was told I had to co-author "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Decoding Your Genes," Larry Gonick's book was one of the first ones that I picked up. It demystified genetics and made what could have been boring into an exciting, humorous subject. A real winner.
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Summary: Brilliant teaching tool
Review: As a senior biology teacher, I have found tis tool invaluable. Before teaching the section, using some of the cartoon background, settles the learners as it makes the science less intimidating. The processes are simply laid out, so that even the most easily confused learner will cope. As a reveiw exercise, again the cartoons put everything into place. I would love to prescribe this book as a text book for my Grade 11's.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent intro to an important field
Review: Genetics, as you've probably heard, is a field of study that's likely going to play a very big part in society's near future. It's also a tough branch of science to grasp. What's the difference between DNA, a gene, a chromosome and a genome? How much of a role does genetics play in your health - is DNA destiny? This book is a solid introduction to understanding genetics: the basics of the science, the history of humanity's knowledge of it, how it relates to other fields (ie evolution) - all explained well, in both word and the highly helpful illustrations. As always, Gonick tosses in some humor with his cartoons, but don't be fooled into thinking this is kid stuff. He delves into serious science. (And I noted with great amusement that one reviewer who hated the book was a big fan of the "for dummies" series. Irony much?) I liked this book a lot - not quite as good as The Cartoon Guide to Physics, and bear in mind that current advances in genetics may well render parts of the book outdated soon... but it's still well worth reading.
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Summary: A great refresher course on genetics
Review: Having graduated from college more than ten years ago, I was becoming increasingly frustrated in trying to keep up with the latest advances in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. The biology classes that I took seemed to have faded from memory a bit too much. Reading this book, however, brought back a flood of memories and helped to consolidate my understanding. Now when companies talk about developing new antibiotics that interfere with ribosomal activity I can visualize what that means. When scientists talk about how difficult proteomics will be relative to sequencing the genome, I can sympathize. This book also helped me appreciate the overall theory of genetics. The courses that I took as a kid seemed to jump directly into the details without providing a good overall roadmap. This book provides that roadmap and serves as a great launching point for further understanding. With the big picture in mind, I feel like I am ready to tackle much more complicated issues with confidence. For another great introductory text, see "The Way Life Works" by Mahlon Hoagland.
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Summary: A Superb Supplement to a Biology Course
Review: I am a high school junior taking the Advanced Placement (AP) Biology course. This book was simply instrumental in my comprehension of the unit on Genetics. It's funny, it's informative and it helps build concepts. Read this book and the jargon in your textbook will seem a lot clearer.
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Summary: Genetics makes sense at last!
Review: I am a reasonably intelligent person with no biology background, trying to make sense of genetics so I can understand discussions about genetic engineering, medicine, the Human Genome Project, creation-evolution, etc. I have tried to read the genetics sections of biology textbooks to understand what's going on, but I find it hard to get the big picture from those. This book is perfect... it starts right from the beginning, and builds carefully and simply all the way to recombinant DNA, glossing over a few hard details but not making any huge, puzzling leaps like other books seem to. My girlfriend, taking third year undergraduate genetics, was astonished at how much material was covered so clearly in such a small book. The book is also fascinating as a study of how science really works. I'm ready for more genetics now!
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Summary: Content too old and incorrect
Review: I bought this book hoping to learn about basic principles of genetics in an easy-to-understand format. What I found was that the material was written many years ago. All you need to do is to check the copyright year. I knew that the one glaring error was the belief that there are 200,000 genes. We now know there are about 30,000. But it left me wondering what other information was outdated. Not wanting to learn incorrect information, I sent it back. If the authors update the content, then buy it because it's an enjoyable book.
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Summary: -ACAAATGGGCTAG- (Spells out: I like it)
Review: I bought this book, because a friend of mine once mentioned it, and when I later stumbled on it I simply had to buy it. It amazed me to find such a relatively huge amount of "knowledge" in a "comic book", or in a book for that matter!! Having some insights in genetics I was surprised to see that it didn't leave any wide gaps or ironically didn't fill them with useless garbage. However, do not go to such lengths as believing to have read everything needed to make a clone of your dog, because even though it brings about information, bare in mind that information can come in many forms: Morse code, (-*-DNA-*-) etc. but also detailed information. Regard this masterpiece as a very-well written and informative summary of how BASIC genetics work and not a "detailed" textbook. Call it a guide....a cartoon guide.....to genetics. I gave it a mere 4 stars, because I like colors (Couldn't find them....!). But then again, perhaps I am colorblind...........No hold on, let me take a look at my X-Cromosome, yes I see, sure enough, It hasn't mutated... :)
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Summary: The Cartoon Guide to Genetics
Review: I have used this in my classroom to supplement my textbook lessons and my students loved it. It's tone was light but the information was solid. Bravo!
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Summary: Biology is FUN!
Review: I loved this book. It was so much fun. I'm a medical school student and I just finished a Cell Biology class. The first time I read "The Cartoon Guide to Genetics" was 3 years ago, when I didn't know lots of Biology. Now as a student, I read it again and I was amazed to see that all the concepts I was learning at school were clearly explained in this book and in the most hilarious manner. As I was reading it, I couldn't believe I was actually laughing! Simply GREAT!
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