Most Japanese textbooks (and teachers!) use what I call "the squiggle method" to teach the kana--they give you tables of 100 squiggles, and say "go memorize these". Most people manage to do that eventually, but only with a lot more pain and effort than is really necessary. Since I started to use this book in my Japanese classes, I've noticed that students learn the kana much more quickly, much more accurately, and with much better handwriting than before. The system that the book uses is similar to the system that Heisig develops in "Remembering the Kanji", so this book can give a good preview of what that's all about. Users can then decide if they like that system, and if so make the plunge into Heisig kanji. The biggest problem with the book is that the Katakana section (which I think was written by the co-author) isn't nearly as good as the Hiragana section (which I think was written by Heisig himself)--users will probably want to re-write some of the weaker stories presented there.