This is a massive compendium of information. That will put some readers off. It is subtitled "The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation." That will drive away even more. Then, of course, there is the fact that it is from the pen (computer?) of Silver RavenWolf. And finally, if anyone has made it through all of the preceding "problems," there is the fact that it is from Llewellyn. Guess what? None of that matters.

Much like The Magician's Companion, this is an invaluable resource. It is easy to use. Each of the five sections has its own index, making it easy to find what you are looking for, with a more comprehensive index in the back of the book.

This is a book to explore, not to read. Feel free to jump around and sample various sections in no particular order. The information is fairly basic, and therefore won't appeal to people with lots of experience most likely.

Ordinarily, I break a book down into daily segments so that I finish it in a reasonable amount of time, but that wasn't practical with this book. Instead, I just browsed around and tried to keep track of how much I was reading per day.

I have never been a big fan of Silver RavenWolf. In fact, I have never had much of an opinion about her non-fiction work. Based on the two non-fiction books of hers that I have read (To Light a Sacred Flame, and this book) I would have to say that her work is competent and reasonably informative. Granted that they have been aimed at the newer members of the community, but that is not necessarily a disadvantage.

There are some minor typographical errors here (I found my first one on page 6), but that doesn't detract from the value of the book.

Silver does make frequent reference to other of her books but that, in my opinion, is preferable to rehashing that information in this book. This book is a lot like shopping at a flea market. You're never quite sure what you are going to find, and you may have a tendency to question the quality, but you are likely to be pleasantly surprised as not.

In the best tradition of a Book of Shadows, this book constitutes a valuable reference source. It is by no means exhaustive or complete, but it contains enough about a wide variety of topics to earn a prominent place on the book shelves of most Wiccans. It also helps you locate further information on many of the topics.

This is a book aimed at "younger" readers (mid-teens through mid-twenties would be a good range in my estimation), so Silver includes a fair number of admonitions about parental consent, as well as a good bit of esteem building for the person just starting their magickal journey. It contains some history, some anecdotes, some practical advice, and a wide-ranging collection of information.

She freely acknowledges the difficulty of sorting fact from fiction, especially in some of the older texts.

Occasionally she makes statements with which I totally disagree. When discussing words which were apparently adopted from medieval texts, she says ""Familiar" and "Warlock" were discarded completely by the year 2000." Wrong! Fallen out of common usage? Perhaps. Discarded completely? No. On the other hand ".like all things of serious study, takes time," I couldn' t agree with more.

She provides numerous lists: Pantheons, Correspondences, colors, planets, etc., all of which are nicely organized and very readable. She includes frequent Recommended Reading lists, with books which should be readily available.

One thing that really pleased me (and a personal bug-a-boo) is that, when talking about planetary hours, she explains clearly and simply how to calculate them.

She gives ideas for each of the Sabbats after giving some background for each of them, devoting from a page to two pages per Sabbat. This provides a nice, encapsulated source from which to begin to develop your own rituals.

Those who don't like basic books; or those who are convinced that they are well beyond the need for the type of material Silver provides may be surprised if they take the time to look through this book. Although the information is aimed at the novice, it helps some of the old-timers to remember why we got involved in the first place.

This is the sort of a book that belongs in a coven library, if you are fortunate enough to have one of those; or at least the library of the High Priestess or High Priest. It can serve as a starting point for discussions, and provide some basic information.

The advantage this book has over many that I have seen is that it is very well organized - the index for each section is at the front of the section; the sections are coherent; and the bibliography is extensive without being overwhelming. On top of all that, the author is not afraid to interject some humor into her writing.