Kanji Power: A Workbook for Mastering Japanese Characters (Tuttle Language Library)

Rating:
Summary: My favorite kanji book
Review: I have a bunch of kanji books, but Kanji Power is my favorite. I'm not a big fan of the kind that give you mnemonics to help remember the kanji, because then the mnemonic is just another thing to remember. I do pretty well with just plain memorization.

For each kanji entry, the following details are provided: on-yomi, kun-yomi, meaning, explanation of the character's shape, example sentences, common compounds, and writing practice (with tips on writing them correctly). I like that the readings are written in kana, because I'm always suspicious of romaji. Also, it helps me remember them better.

There are also quizzes and tests, but I don't find them useful. While all the kanji compounds it tests you on are listed in the kanji entry, they're not words I find very useful or common. For example, the entry for "shi/ichi" (city, market) includes these "common" compounds: "shikyou" (market conditions), "shichou" (mayor), "shiyakusho" (city hall), and "kabushiki-shijou" (stock exchange).

Personally, I like Hadamitzky and Spahn's way of showing compounds. Only compounds with kanji that have been learned previously are used. That way, even if the words aren't so common, you can write the whole word. However, I don't like the way they order the kanji, and learning them out of order makes that feature pointless.

Rating:
Summary: Kanji Power Has Many Features
Review: This book shows where not to make mistakes when writing characters(lines sticking out in wrong places, how to space lines)and has plenty of example sentences. It has many tests to see how you are doing. However, material in the tests are sometimes different than actual studied material. Full reading of kanji are given in the book.