This is indeed a marvelous introduction to the concepts behind statistical analysis, with clear emphasis on the inherently tentative nature of any statistical conclusion. In wacky scenario after wacky scenario, the cartoon characters who populate this good-sized book encounter problems that require statistical analysis and attempt to resolve them using introductory methods, all the while reiterating the fact that they’re dealing in probabilities and not certainties.

From a pedagogical perspective, I really appreciate a few different choices the authors made in this and the previous volumes. First, each major concept or theory to be introduced has its own weird situation: for teaching about the central limit theorem, there’s a giant barn full of hypothetical cans of worms, stacked by average worm length in each can, for instance. And whenever the CLT is discussed in later portions of the book, the cans of worms are brought back up visually as well as verbally, so the visual aid really reminds you of the whole thing you learned a couple of chapters ago. And second, there’s a lot of that kind of repetition and a lot of acknowledgement of the reader’s likely comprehension struggles. In fact, there’s sometimes a little more repetition than necessary, which for the casual reader isn’t quite as fun, though I can see it’d be really useful for someone using the book as a study guide or refresher.

As a person who’s never formally studied statistics, I can’t say for certain just how useful this book would be as a student or teacher in the subject. But I can say it’s engaging and fun and makes me consider (again) taking a course or two at the community college, just because. I even tried comprehending the “Math Cave” at the end of the book and mostly succeeded–though the few real statistical formulas included stretched my wimpy math muscles to the limit. So, all in all, I think this is a great visual introduction to statistics, especially (though not exclusively) for the just-curious reader.

(A tad more may be found here.)