Think you can't have fun learning statistics? Think again.

The Manga Guide to Statistics will teach you everything you need to know about this essential discipline, while entertaining you at the same time. With its unique combination of Japanese-style comics called manga and serious educational content, the EduManga format is already a hit in Japan.

In The Manga Guide to Statistics, our heroine Rui is determined to learn about statistics to impress the dreamy Mr. Igarashi and begs her father for a tutor. Soon she's spending her Saturdays with geeky, bespectacled Mr. Yamamoto, who patiently teaches her all about the fundamentals of statistics: topics like data categorization, averages, graphing, and standard deviation.

After all her studying, Rui is confident in her knowledge of statistics, including complex concepts like probability, coefficients of correlation, hypothesis tests, and tests of independence. But is it enough to impress her dream guy? Or maybe there's someone better, right in front of her?

Reluctant statistics students of all ages will enjoy learning along with Rui in this charming, easy-to-read guide, which uses real-world examples like teen magazine quizzes, bowling games, test scores, and ramen noodle prices. Examples, exercises, and answer keys help you follow along and check your work. An appendix showing how to perform statistics calculations in Microsoft Excel makes it easy to put Rui's lessons into practice.

This EduManga book is a translation from a bestselling series in Japan, co-published with Ohmsha, Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 20 Ratings

Much Fun, Too Many Errors - 2009-09-25
Reviewer Rating:
Since I enjoyed the Manga Guide to Statistics, I guess the author achieved at least one objective of good teaching - keep the learner interested. The use of well thought out graphics and humorous examples are likely to encourage a learner to attend to the content.
Still, maintaining interest and good teaching, while related, are not identical. One can maintain interest in ways that detract from learning as well as in ways that enhance learning.
The tendency in this text to oversimplify (e.g., the discussion of what is and is not "measurable" at the beginning of the book, the underemphasis of the importance of random selection) are definite negatives. They will lead a learner with no background in the use of statistical procedures to mistaken conclusions about the meaning of measurements and the generalizability of findings.
In at least one case, the oversimplification proceeds to the point of presenting information that is wrong (i.e., the examples of alternative hypotheses on pp. 172-173). To be fair, there are many "gentle" statistics texts that, as does the Manga Guide to Statistics, present the notion that the alternative hypothesis is simply "not the null hypothesis."
Despite the popularity of this view, Neyman and Pearson (who developed statistical hypothesis testing theory 75 years ago) noted that the "not the null" formulation of the alternative hypothesis would lead to the acceptance of trivial effects as meaningful simply because they were "statistically significant."
The "not the null" formulation of the alternative hypothesis creates other problems.
For example, the null hypothesis on page 173, "The allowances of high school girls in Tokyo and Osaka are the same," has as its alternative, "The allowances of high school girls in Tokyo and Osaka are not the same." Stating the alternative hypothesis in this way does not permit an evaluation of the power of a statistical test (power refers to the probability that a test will detect a difference, change or relationship when it is present). As Neyman noted, since the test would have to detect an infinitesimal difference, the power would necessarily be infinitesimal as well.
Instead, an alternative hypothesis should specify a minimum effect, e.g., "The allowances of high school girls in Tokyo and Osaka differ by an average amount of at least 500." By specifying a minimum effect to be detected, we can find the probability that a statistical hypothesis test would detect a difference of at least 500 (the test's power).
Since I have to devote time to "unteaching" the "not the null" formulation of the alternative hypothesis, I am far from thrilled to see it here. Convincing learners that the easily understood "not the null" definition is wrong usually requires a lot of work and pain.
After all, who likes being told that what they thought they understood, is what they still do not understand?
This makes it more difficult for me to help my students understand the central importance of power to statistical testing. And, as Neyman pointed out, the power of a test is the main determinant of how useful it is.
It may seem that I am asking too much of an introductory text.
I do not think so.
It is my experience that one must engage in some fairly sophisticated reasoning to understand the meaning of the results of a statistical analysis. The simple, obvious interpretation is almost always wrong (cf., Darrell Huff's How to lie with statistics).
We do a learner no favors by simplifying a complex process to the point where we deceive the learner into thinking that they understand something that they do not.
The trick (which I am still working on mastering) is to help learners learn how to enjoy the challenge of minimizing, but still living with, uncertainty (an important element of all statistical reasoning) and also to help them learn to be suspicious of "easy" answers.
I recently got around to reading W. Edwards Deming's book, Out of the Crisis. In it, he made an observation about maintaining learner interest and quality teaching that is relevant to this book: "In my experience, I have seen a teacher hold a hundred and fifty students spellbound, teaching what is wrong." The Manga Guide to Statistics held my interest from the moment I started reading it. In fact, I read it in one sitting. I honestly enjoyed reading it, but it is wrong in too many places.
I purchased the Manga Guide to Statistics thinking that I might use it in my introductory research methods courses. I shall not use it. I shall not recommend it. I shall not mention it.

Note: I apologize for the lengthy discussion of the alternative hypothesis. I am afraid that I am not clever enough to find another way to demonstrate the problem of oversimplification.

Deming, W.E. (1986). Out of the Crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study.

Huff, D. (1954). How to Lie with Statistics. NY: Norton.

Neyman, J. & Pearson, E. (1933). On the problem of the most efficient tests of statistical hypotheses. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 231, 289-337.

Best statistics book ever. Buy now. - 2009-03-28
Reviewer Rating:
I don't know where to start. This is the best statistics book. Ever.

I never thought I'd say this, but the authors have made a book on statistics FUN without dumbing it down (this effectively covers at least the entirety of a college level stat intro class).

As a student, this cleared up many problems I'd been having operationalizing fairly advanced formula within Excel. The chapter on inputting statistical formulae in Excel is amazing and worth the cost of the book in itself. The explanations of the formulas use concrete, real world examples. No gambling examples or other unnecesarily abstract or standard scenarios.

As a teacher, I bow down to Mr. Takahashi and the folks at Trend-pro. Their pedagogical expertise is unparalleled. I can only hope that one day I am 1/10th the teacher this man is. He made statistics, a fairly dry subject, not just palatable, but entertaining.

Arigato.

Surprising Purchase - 2009-06-11
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book on a whim - I like manga, and statistics play a big part in my daily life. I was expecting this book to suck - how can manga be informative in an academic manner?

To my surprise, it is quite a good book. The topics covered range from high-school statistics (mean, median) to first year uni stats (hypothesis testing).

I'll be one to admit that stats is a dry subject, but Shin Takahashi made it fun (plus it was fun to read the storyline by itself). And yes, I even learnt something (Cramer's V coefficient, which I never needed in my line of work).

My only grouse with it is that it didn't continue further. I was expecting more, but I guess this is why its an intro book.

A very enjoyable and useful book! - 2009-04-21
Reviewer Rating:
Ahh, statistics. The subject that so many of us need to understand, too few grasp, and even fewer seem to enjoy. What better way is there to test the quality of the book than for me to read about something I don't particularly enjoy and have never been terribly good with?

The book is designed to give an elementary understanding of basic statistical concepts and methods in a creative and approachable manner. I'll skip to the bottom line and say that I think it succeeds in doing so. The art is very well done, the story line is a bit better than in the Electricity book I reviewed previously, although it bogs down near the end, and the information is presented in a clear and logical manner.

The Manga Guide to Statistics begins by defining various data types and how to determine in which category the data you have belong. Then it digs deeper into understanding numerical (quantitative) data and categorical (qualitative) data. Later, you are guided through normalization, scoring, deviations, probability, relationships between variables, and testing hypotheses. All the standard foundational aspects of statistics are covered in enough depth to give a valid and useful introduction.

One thing I really liked was the appendix, which shows very clearly how to do all of the major calculations using Microsoft Excel, with xls spreadsheets available for download from the publisher's website. While it would certainly be my preference to NOT have this topic tied to a specific program from one vendor, I did test out many of the spreadsheets and instructions using [...] spreadsheet. Good news! With the exception of menu locations for functions being different and requiring a little bit of not-too-difficult searching, I was able to follow all of the directions I attempted from the appendix using[...] That freed me from an expensive and unnecessary expenditure (or at least from having to find a place and way to use software I don't want to use).

If you already know statistics pretty well, this book wouldn't be useful to you. If you are looking for an easy to understand and quality introduction that includes a bit of frivolity, you will find this book both useful and enjoyable. I did.

VERY fun way to learn statistics!!! - 2009-03-02
Reviewer Rating:
'The Manga Guide to Statistics' is an excellent way to learn statistics for the newbie or amateur client base, plain and simple. Originating from Japan, the manga approach to teaching concepts works well for the right target audience and in this book I think it works well for ALL target audiences of statistics. Packed with over 200+ pages of content, you will learn about the importance of statistical analysis, how to work with numerical datasets, and you will do so in a fun way. The writer of the book really knows their content and even though this is presented in a cartoon way, don't let this fool you. The content is serious-minded and gets the job done in SPADES!

I think this is a great book for anyone new to the statistics field and even for someone in college/high school that could benefit from another approach to learning stats other than the typical courseware statistics books.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED