I really loved the opening of this book and overall its approach to teaching the 4 genre in one semester scenario of early creative writing. I, however, was a bit dismayed when I came to the example poems in the poetry section. The actual essays about literary terms and "how to's" on poetry were better - to me - than the actual selections.

This made me pause and I almost didn't finish reading the book. But, I decided to give the other genres a try. I'm glad I did. The examples in the short fiction, non-fiction and play section are really good! Since the other sections are quite good, and since poetry is my main area of focus I could just supplement with other poems right?

Finding one textbook to use, especially go cover this many genres, is not an easy task, but this is one of the most complete (especially given its slim and un-intimidating size). I think I would teach it out of order though and start with non-fiction. I'd also weave in some discussion of graphic novels to the stage/screen section.

So would I use this book for a class? It would be high on my list. There is another book I really like, but it is almost a bit too advanced for the level of class I would be teaching (100, very entry level). Neither book is the perfect solution, but this one comes very, very close. Is there ever a perfect textbook?

I'd also suggest this one for anyone who just wants a good resource for literary terms and basic reminders on formatting your work.