This is the perfect book for beginners looking to learn how to grow a bonsai tree.  Whether you are looking to buy a bonsai tree or one just fell into your lap, this can be your handbook.  It covers selecting a bonsai, caring for a bonsai, and training a bonsai.  The book also quickly covers plant location, soil type, watering, and basic pest control.  The added bonus of such amazing bonsai photos took this book over the top in my opinion

I think the key to this book is the amount of detail is perfect for a beginner.  While they show you how to keep your bonsai well trained, they do not throw beginners off with advanced techniques.  From my experiences many people get turned off by bonsai training because they try to take too big of a bight from the start.  I think this book does a great job of teaching the owner what they need to do and leave it at that.  This is true for all sections of the book, not just the training part that I mentioned.

I wasn’t expecting this book to include too much information on individual species, but I was completely wrong.  This book covers a lot of information on a large list of common species.  For each species, the book provides background on the plant, care tips for the plant, suggestions on the best way to propagate or acquire the plant, and offers the best recommendations for training styles.  This is great information for beginners that receive a bonsai as a gift and don’t know what to do from there.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to any beginner to use as a handy guide.  When sending someone a bonsai as a gift, this might also be a good book to include for the sake of the tree as well. You can’t beat this handy guide for the price!