Product Description
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.)
This EduManga book is a translation of a bestselling series in Japan, co-published with Ohmsha, Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan.
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.
BACKGROUND: I spend a large part of my working day in a SQL Server database, so I have very strong database knowledge. My daughter is 9 years old and is a very strong reader, but could care less about how a computer actually works… as long as she can get to ClubPenguin.com or the other websites she likes to visit for fun.
STORY: A friend loaned me this book to show her, so I gave it to her and asked her to try it. If she read the first 10 pages and it was boring, she should stop. If she liked it, she could keep it until she was done. She opened it on the spot and was 20 pages in before she realized she still was standing in the middle of our kitchen. One day later, she was finished and said it was “cool” and that she liked it.
I asked her if she learned anything or if it was just a story and she started talking. She said a little bit and talked about tables and how information is stored in columns and rows. She talked in a 9 year old’s language and vocabulary, but basically explained to me the concept and benefits of centralized data stored in a single database. She made a couple other comments whose specifics I can’t remember, but clearly articulated database ideas. It was somewhat surreal hearing these things come from a 3rd grader’s mouth. She didn’t feel like she had learned very much. I told her I probably could count on my fingers how many people at my work (300 people total – manufacturing industry, not IT) knew more about databases than she did, based on what she had finished telling me.
SUMMARY: She felt like she read a fun Manga-style story. In reality, she did that but also learned and retained ideas that normally would be taught to much older people. This book took what could be a dry learning experience and changed it into a fun activity no different than if she was reading her Nancy Drew books or her Lego magazines. I see that there are other topics (statistics, physics, etc.) and I’ll ask her if she’s interested in seeing any of the other books. If she wants to, I absolutely would buy them.
And obviously, if you’re read this far, I completely would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about databases on an introductory level.
I have used relational databases for years. I’ve used them to store mailing lists, email account data for postfix, blog and forum data, and more. They are convenient and powerful time savers. Most of what I have learned has been indirectly learned while studying something else; documentation for a computer programming language like PHP or Python, a book on website design for commerce, or documentation and code for an open source project like WordPress or Drupal. As a result, my knowledge is adequate for simple tasks and queries, but I’m nowhere near ready to be a database admin. What I know is incomplete, adequate for my actual needs, but with gaping holes in my knowledge.
Until this week, I was comfortable with this fact.
I found this systematic and foundational introduction to database design clear, interesting, and enjoyable–so much so that I have ordered a few more books on database theory and design and SQL for further study. Contrast that with the indirect introductions I have previously encountered that made me want to ignore the topic, except for the aspects vital to my task(s) at hand.
The Manga Guide to Databases uses a somewhat silly, but pleasant story with well drawn artwork to ease the reader into a complicated subject that requires paying a bit of attention to for comprehension. It begins with the assumption that the reader knows nothing about the topic, so it would be perfect as a base level introductory text, especially for high school aged readers (or those of us who are a bit older, but who still enjoy a bit of whimsy).
We start with the question “What is a database?” and a great description of how and why they are useful. We move into a basic definition of relational databases with a very brief mention of other types of databases that exist. The fun continues with a chance to design a database around the model of entities and relationships.
Once the foundation is laid with a conceptual understanding of databases and their design, structured query language (SQL) is introduced. I was thrilled to discover this wasn’t product specific language, but rather standard ANSI, at least as far as I can tell (okay, I know a little more than I let on earlier, but I still consider myself a database/SQL novice). That is great, because it means that whatever is learned here should apply anywhere, whether using MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Access, Microsoft SQL Server, or whatever, so long as the product conforms to the standard. This certainly isn’t a complete SQL introductory text, but it is enough to get a person started understanding the basic concepts and how to operate a database.
Ultimately, the book was a success. I wouldn’t kid anyone into thinking that reading and understanding this book would make a person capable of real database administration, but it does give a clear and solid foundation for further study, and in my case has whet my appetite for going back to fill in some personal knowledge gaps that I have been content to let exist for a very long time.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A suprisingly superb database book
Most of my friends and colleagues had to laugh when I told about or showed them this manga guide. Though this book is really fun to read and contains many subtle jokes, it’s not…
The irrepressible Japanese Manga is back, this time talking about databases. The series uses the genre of Japanese cartoons to teach serious topics in science and technology.
Others have mentioned the concern about the audience. If database design were taught in high school, this might be an appropriate text. It does deal with the important issues of database design and development, including three main types of databases, hierarchical, network, and relational, and goes on to focus on the relational model. It gives significant detail on the importance of normalizing a database, an issue which many neophyte developers find daunting. It goes on to give examples of SQL use, an introduction to bullet-proofing transactions, sharing loads on more than one server, object oriented databases, and web based databases.
There are questions at the end of each chapter; the questions are pertinent, but relatively few. There is also a brief index on the back cover.
I would use this book to introduce the young student to database design and development issues. There are insufficient examples to allow this to be used as serious text, but perhaps that was not its main purpose. Is it just me, or would this book and type of presentation appeal more to young women than young men?
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Introducation to Database Concepts!
DISCLAIMER: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.
As a self-confessed relational database geek, I’ve always been frustrated by my inability to…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Creative way to learn about databases, nothing to technical
If you have ever thought to yourself, “man, I really love comics”, and “man, I really love tech books”, and you just happen to be thinking about learning something about…
1.0 out of 5 stars
It gets the job done
I was looking forward to this book. I had enjoyed the Manga Guide to Statistics from the same publisher. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book as much as that one.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Black and white cartoons blend with clear directions for a user-friendly guide
Princess Ruruna and Cain have a problem: their fruit-selling empire holds conflicting, duplicated data and sorting is causing difficulties.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good But Pricey
Good introduction to the subject but a little expensive for the amount of information imparted.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent intro guide!
I haven’t thought much about databases in 20 years, this book made a good, and fun, refresher to everything I learned in college and forgot.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cute Book But Unclear Audience
‘The Manga Guide to Databases’ is a nice intro book for anyone that is new to databases and wants a DIFFERENT way of learning the basics.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Fun & Instruction in Database Concepts
This Manga series makes excellent use of a unique concept in pedagogy. The Manga/comic is used to instruct in general concepts in a fun and clear manner, but unlike other series…
4.0 out of 5 stars
A cute introduction
All in all, TMGD is a fun way to learn about databases and core concepts, but it’ll require a few leaps of faith.