Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is an excellent book for learning the essential 2000 kanji. It is devised in a way so that a learner can test himself by just cutting a piece of paper as it explains in the book and you can test yourself for various things (meaning, kanji itself, readings, etc.) On the left side of each page, there are 8 kanji written with a brush and numbered so that you can see the stroke order, and near that there is the same kanji written in pen. Sometimes, there are more than one ways to write a kanji (old way and new way) and they are all written in the normal pen form.
This book is also excellent for cross reference: you can look up a kanji by stroke order, reading (kun/on), and there is even an appendix for English names of radicals which is really handy to have. Overall, this is an excellent book, almost flawless, but the reason I didn't rate it 5 stars is that it lacks readings for some kanji...yes, I'm a bit stingy when it comes to this. An example is the word "fire". In the book they will tell you that it can be pronounced both Ka and hi, but they forget (or they don't consider relevant) that it can also be read "ho". There are also other kanji like this one, but not that many.
There is also another error I noticed: on the book's cover it shows many kanji, one of which is not present in the book. That Kanji is the symbol for comma-design, and it is read either 'ha', 'tomoe', 'tomo' or 'uzumaki'. You will probably encounter this kanji very rarely, but it is useful to notice things like this.
If you need to learn kanji, this is probably the best buy - I highly suggest it!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for learning Kanji
Review: Wether for the casual learner or the dedicated student, this reference is excellent. It is an absolute must for anyone who needs a listing of Kanji. This book reads much like a dictionary, but is designed to teach as well as provide a valuable reference. I found the book to be very informative. The course described in the book is very practical and also leaves the reader to learn at their own pase. The calligraphy and writing in the book is of very high quality and with the stroke order marked on each and every character allows for easier learning of each of the 2000 Kanji presented.I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a casual glance into Japanese or looking to travel to Japan someday and needs a firm grasp of the written language.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: When I first arrived in Japan, one of the veteran teachers I was working with showed me his dog-eared copy of this book and recommended I buy my own copy ASAP. I did, and eight years later my copy is just as dog-eared as his was. Its compact size combined with its large, clear diagrams made it perfect for studying at home, in the coffee shop, or while riding the train or bus. Along with my Kenkyusha's Furigana English-Japanese Dictionary, Essential Kanji was the most useful language book I ever bought.
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