content: I have a pile of XML books on my desk. They all seem to assume too much or assume to little. Those written at my level appear to be written with the "stream of consciousness" approach to technical authoring. This book is a breath of fresh air. As a novice with only a basic understanding of XML, I jumped right into the chapter on schemas and felt I had a very strong grasp of it in just an evening. Every topic was explained with clarity, and, yet it did not seem too slow or dull. The code samples included line-by-line explanations. If I got it just by looking at the sample, I could move on. Otherwise, the explanations were there to illuminate the sample for me. The review and exercises at the end of each chapter follow the collegiate textbook formula. Why is it a formula? Because it works! What a sense of accomplishment to get to the end and be able to answer the questions and perform the suggested exercises.