I have to agree with Rabbit on this. The book isn't nessicary. I had the same deal with the instructor introducing the book later. It is does explain things if you don't have an instructor.. What I would recommend is that Teachers buy a few copys of the book to Loan out to students who want to use the at home, or for students learning alice on their own. I prefer to just be creative in alice.. seeing as how programing doesn't have one set way of doing things.