The Manga Guide to Databases
Book Review

By Dale Farris, Reviews Coordinator Golden Triangle PC Club March 2009 General Overview Want to learn about databases without the tedium? With its unique combination of Japanese-style comics and serious educational content, The Manga Guide to Databases is just the book for you. Princess Ruruna is stressed out. With the king and queen away, she has to manage the Kingdom of Kod's humongous fruit-selling empire. Overseas departments, scads of inventory, conflicting prices, and so many customers! It's all such a confusing mess. But a mysterious book and a helpful fairy promise to solve her organizational problems—with the practical magic of databases. In The Manga Guide to Databases, Tico the fairy teaches the Princess how to simplify her data management. We follow along as they design a relational database, understand the entity-relationship model, perform basic database operations, and delve into more advanced topics. Once the Princess is familiar with transactions and basic SQL statements, she can keep her data timely and accurate for the entire kingdom. Finally, Tico explains ways to make the database more efficient and secure, and they discuss methods for concurrency and replication. Examples and exercises (with answer keys) help you learn, and an appendix of frequently used SQL statements gives the tools you need to create and maintain full-featured databases. (Of course, it wouldn't be a royal kingdom without some drama, so read on to find out who gets the girl—the arrogant prince or the humble servant.) Note: This EduManga book is a translation of a bestselling series in Japan, co-published with Ohmsha, Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan. Table of Contents The book's six (6) chapters include the following: Chapter 1: What is a Database? Chapter 2: What is a Relational Database? Chapter 3: Let's Design a Database Chapter 4: Let's Use a Database - Basic Operation of SQL Chapter 5: Let's Operate the Database Chapter 6: Spread and Contribution of Databases The included Appendix includes frequently used SQL statements. The book also includes a list of handy references to databases. Author Mana Takahashi, with Shoko Azuma and Trend-pro Co., Ltd About the Author Mana Takahashi is a graduate of the Tokyo University, Faculty of Economics. She is an active technical writer and has published a number of books on topics such as Java, C, XML, Information Engineering, and System Administration. Trend-Pro, Co, Ltd Trend-Pro, Co, Ltd performed the task of transforming the manuscript into the comic format of the book. Date January 2009 ISBN ISBN-10 1-59327-190-9 ISBN-13 978-1-59327-190-9 Price $19.95 Features 224 pages; preface; extensive Japanese comic illustrations; figures; tables; exercises; appendix; index   Targeted Customers This book is an excellent introductory book on databases. The intended readers are those who need to create and manage electronic databases of information about products. These include any personal collections, such as book or audio CD libraries, assortments of recipes, photo albums, and of course organizational membership. In the world of business, databases of course are naturally an essential component of business operations, and usually include databases about customers, product lines, sales, and most all other essential, mission critical applications. This book is geared more toward the home or retail market, since business databases tend to be much more complex and are frequently customized to suit a particular business and have been coded from scratch by a team of professional programmers. This book targets the more simpler approach to creating databases that would likely occur in a home. The Japanese style manga comics are all displayed in a basic, black-and-white design, which helps to keep down the cost of the book while also heightening this manga style of drawing. Note also that since this book is written by a Japanese author, the context of the comic characters that form the basis of the story of the book is decidedly Japanese. This means the frequent references to Japanese items, concepts, objects, or institutions may take some getting used to by Western readers unfamiliar with Japanese culture. However, the material is well organized around the fundamental, basic concepts you would expect to find in a book that serves as an introduction to the field of databases. The author succeeds in presenting a clear, easy-to-understand guide to these database basics, and this approach would also well serve students interested in taking college level computer database classes. The book will help form a more solid foundation of the principles of databases. Book Updates Visit www.nostarch.com/mg_databases.htm for access to the Excel files used in the exercises covered in the book. About No Starch Press San Francisco based No Starch Press, Inc., publisher of such best-selling titles as "Steal This Computer Book 3," "The Book of JavaScript," and "The Linux Cookbook," is an independent publishing company committed to producing readable, information-packed computer books that make a difference. No Starch focuses on Open Source, Web development, computer security, programming tools, and alternative operating systems. No Starch authors are highly regarded experts who have the rare ability to write about complex topics clearly and concisely. As a result, No Starch books share a no-nonsense manner that both educates and entertains. The Linux Journal Press series offers readers books on cutting-edge Open Source topics that make a difference, in an effort to advance the acceptance and usability of Linux. Recent titles include "The Book of Zope," "Programming Linux Games," and "The Linux Cookbook." Linux Journal Press titles are developed in partnership with Linux Journal. The No Starch international distribution network brings their books to all major English-language and critical non-English language markets. Their U.S. distributor, Publishers Group West (PGW), is the largest U.S. distributor for independent book publishers. PGW sells to all major wholesalers (Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Bookazine, Koen, etc.), national chains and independents, online booksellers, and academic and technical bookstores. No Starch also aggressively pursues sales in non-traditional channels, including corporate and premium sales, bulk sales, and book clubs. The No Starch international distributors (including JGA in Canada, Computer Bookshops in the UK, Woodslane in Australia/New Zealand) reach all major English and non-English markets with large technical populations. They also maintain extensive contacts with international publishers who translate their books and bring them to their markets in their local language. William Pollock, founder and publisher of No Starch Press, Inc. (and co-founder of APress) has over fifteen years of book publishing experience. No Starch Press benefits from his experience in professional reference, scientific, college, and trade publishing. Mr. Pollock has worked his way up through the publishing ranks from editorial assistant, to sales representative, to acquisitions editor, to publisher. He knows the book publishing business from the ground up. Contact Travis Peterson Sales & Marketing Assistant No Starch Press 555 De Haro St., Suite 250 San Francisco, California 94107 800-420-7240 415-863-9900, Ext. 300 FAX 415-863-9950 travis@nostarch.com www.nostarch.com