I love this book and its predecessor, book I. This book, which deals with simplified characters, introduces you to plenty of new characters in each chapter, contextualized in a reading passage, which does not use pinyin. This is followed by detailed explanation of the new words, with definitions and phrases containing those words. Then the individual characters are highlighted, with examples of how they combine with other characters to form words. Also, where a complex version of the character exists, a visual comparison is made between the simplified and complex forms. After this there is a "Snowball" section with extra exposure to the characters and characters from previous chapters. There is a nice mini-dictionary at the back of the book.

In book I, 400 characters were introduced. Book II builds upon this, introducing an additional "500 of the most frequently used characters...in a wider context of about 4000 words formed with them", as the back of the book states.

I find this book to be thoughtfully designed and well-organized and highly accessible for people that want to study on their own at their own pace. I didn't find anything that came close to it for my purposes, which is why I ordered it from abroad since no bookstores in North America carry it anymore, which is a shame.