Rating: 
Summary: Stay away from this book
Review: First, a correction for Mr. West's review. The 1,945 Jouyou kanji are taught over the course of grades 1-9. The kanji taught in grades 1-6 are the Kyouiku kanji, which number 1,006.
I recommend against this book because there is simply no reason to learn the etymological history of the kanji or ridiculous stories to rememeber their meaning e.g. "a needle in the anus". The Japanese do not learn kanji in this way. I see no reason why non-native speakers should do otherwise. All these little stories about each kanji just serve to clutter your mind.
Henshall also omits radical information, while including truly obscure information. As an example, the kanji "osore" (fear) is an extremely rare character that is only included in the jouyou kanji set because of its appearance in the postwar constitution. However, Henshall lists the non-approved on-reading "gou", and then lists three compounds which are so rare they are not found in the H&S Kanji Dictionary. Stroke order is also absent from this book.
If you are intent on learning kanji, first acquire a working knowledge of Japanese and a substantial vocabulary. Kanji do not exist in a vacuum and developing a vocabulary is crucial.
I think the etymological stories behind the kanji are interesting to read, but as a study aid, this book is useless. It is *not* a kanji dictionary. Please do not believe otherwise. If you want a kanji dictionary, I cannot recommend H&S's "The Kanji Dictionary" highly enough.
Rating: 
Summary: A thorough list but fails in a few ways.
Review: Henshall's book is comprehensive. It is organized in chapters corresponding to the grades Japanese youngsters learn kanji. I initially chose this book over a few others because he explores kanji origins and it's kind of enlightening. But the book fails in a few major ways. First, the book does not demonstrate stroke order. The mnemonics given are pretty corny and rarely helpful. I appreciate what the author is trying to do, but for most learners, a book of mnemonics defeats the purpose. Finally, the calligraphy is terrible and many old-form kanjis and kanjis embedded in English text are hand-written. It's pretty sloppy. The major selling point of the book is the English-language history of kanji origins, though I would imagine that if you are really concerned about kanji origins, you are probably a specialist and can read Japanese documents on the subject. I recommend "Kanji & Kana" over this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful and surprisingly informative
Review: I am not yet a student of Japanese, but I have a personal interest in the Kanji characters and Japanese culture. I found the explanation behind the Kanji characers fascinating. Unlike many references, this book includes the theory, for want of a better word, behind the characters. When something makes sense, no matter how novel that logic is, it makes understanding seem that much more tangible. I wish this book had a reverse search capability, i.e. an index in English that would refer you to the proper Kanji character, but such an index seems to be lacking in most books of this kind. It does not desbcribe the stroke sequence for individual characters either, but describes the calligraphic technique in general later in the book, making it a little less appealing in that respect. Overall, a refreshingly informative reference.
Rating: 
Summary: It all depends on how you memorize things.
Review: I bought this book when I first started studying Japanese, and it was very interesting, but at the same time, I didn't learn that much from it other than the history of the characters.This book doesn't show you stroke orders, and it uses roma-ji instead of kana. It also takes time to look up the other characters that are contained in compunds. You have to look them up in the index in the back of the book. It would be a lot better if they just had the numbers of the Kanji next to the compounds. Some of my friends like the way it helps you memorize Kanji by including mnemonics, and some of them do help, but a lot of them are a little bit too complex, and it is easier to go ahead and memorize the Kanji instead of the mnemonic.
Rating:
Summary: This is NOT a Kanji dictionary...
Review: I can only recommend this book to those who are interested in Kanji origins. It's not exactly a good tool to use in memorization. The mnemonic used seems harder to remember then the Kanji itself! If you want to memorize Kanji, buy the TUTTLE KANJI CARDS (I and II). As they seem to work better for me...not to mention more convenient. Overall, this book is fairly interesting, but don't buy it if you are a Kanji learner.
Rating: 
Summary: The best way I know to "Remeber The Characters"!
Review: I first bought a copy of this some 5-6 years ago. Since then I have bought almost any Japanese dictionary, or Kanji study aid I could find. This is still the best memorization tool, at least for me. It is not a substitute for a good character dictionary (I like Spahn and Hadiminsky, Rose, and Halpern)- which gives far more compounds than this little book could possibly attempt to. Its strength is in its simplicity and memory mnemonics. I use it together with a Japanese dictionary (currentlty favoring S&H, because it includes compounds where the search kanji isn't always the first character in a compound). If anyone else knows other learning materials by the author I'ld love to know.
Rating:
Summary: My most important learning tool
Review: I have been studying Japanese at the university level for several years, and I lived in Japan and studied the language instensively for one year. I have used so many learning materials I can't even begin to count them. But THIS BOOK has been the single most important and useful one. I can not stress enough how amazing it's been for me. It has taken me, and all my friends who are studying Japanese who I've told about it, to a whole new level.
Everyone learns differently. Henshalls style is not for everyone. But if you're like me, and learn best when you can find out WHY something is the way that it is, and connect it to other things you already know, then THIS is your book. If I understand how a kanji came about etymlogically, then when the times comes to recall it, I can reconstruct though logical means in my head how it came about, and viola, I've remembered it. Coming to understand the function of radicals and various other aspects of how kanji are formed has even helped me to pre-emptively be able to guess what a kanji will look like from it's sound and meaning, before I've ever seen it.
This is NOT a dictionary. And it's also not a text book. And yes, sometimes Henshall's pneumonics are a little silly. But thier silliness is exactly what makes them stick in my head. Trust me, if you're a serious student of Japanese, you need a good kanji dictionary, but you aslo need this book. Not only is it extremely useful for it's stated goal of memorization, but every entry is fascinating historicaly and culturally. I've had people who know no Japanese just have fun looking through it. And the introduction is one of the better crash courses in how Japan came to have this crazy writing system that I've yet read.
This book had traveled with me all over the world. Someday, when I've finally mastered the 1945 jouyou kanji, and I throw myself a huge party to celebrate, I'll give a gracious speech and THIS BOOK will feature front and center.
Rating:
Summary: A learning disaster!
Review: I have studied Japanese for 6 years, next semester I get my B.A in Japanese, and I would NOT reccomend this book!
I have studied the modern science behind how the western mind works to learn Japanese and Chinese characters in detail, and I see that the title "A Guide to remembering Japanese Characters" is Very misleading. In fact it is not a guide - since it contains no practical advice of how to remembering the characters. It is not very usable as a dictionary either. It is to describe it more accurately " A Guide to the Historical Background of Japanese Characters". It is a list of characters (more or less widely used in the Japanese language) with a lot of information on how the characters form and sound came to be.
In addition, the writer tries to get away "Guiding you to remembering Japanese characters" simply through making up some nonsense words for the character.
My "faked example" to give you an idea of this book: The character for "2" looks like two lines in Japanese, almost like = . So, the author would then say something like " The character for two was once written with the middle finger and the index finger in the sand, and the sound for sand "Nai" transformed into the word today "Ni"
The writer of the book would then write "INDEX AND MIDDLE IN THE SAND SOUNDS LIKE NAI BUT NI IS TWO IN HAND" or something else long and completely confusing. From what I have studied on how to remember Japanese characters - you should find a book that gives you opportunity to step by step comparing and experimenting with the shapes of characters and sounds, sorting and relating them to things you already know. There are books like that - they are the best way to go! Kanji cards also works great fore some - although it is as easy to forget the kanji you remembered using Kanji cards.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for learning kanji
Review: I positively LOVE this book! It's got the best mnemonics I've ever found useful in learning Japanese characters, and I think it will help me remember all of them. Some of the mnemonics are funny, like #84: "Gaping mouth sings the can-can"! I'm about 300 characters into the book already, and I can remember all of the ones I learned so far. So I guess this should be in the library or on the desk of anyone studying Japanese.
Rating:
Summary: I think that book is excelent!!!
Review: I think that book is the best Kanji Guide that I Know, the explanations are very clear and have clear phrases...It is very useful for me.
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