Introduction to Visual Optics: A Light Approach, SamanthaStrong. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health; 2023. ISBN: 9780323875349. $96.99.

Introduction to Visual Optics: A Light Approach is a new textbook written by Dr. Samantha Strong, currently a Lecturer in Optometry at Aston University. Teaching this material at the university level presents both challenges and opportunities, which makes a fresh approach to the content very welcome. One substantial challenge (at least in my opinion) is that a lot of the necessary material is quantitative and complex, requiring both mathematical fluency and physical intuition. The opportunity, however, is that this technical content relates to something very direct and intuitive: what we see and why. This makes visual optics an excellent vehicle for showing students how quantitative models can inform our understanding of experience, provided the math doesn't overwhelm that understanding. Dr. Strong's preface makes clear her intent to offer a text that will meet both of these goals, and my reading of the book suggests that she has succeeded admirably. The book covers geometric optics, physical optics, and clinical applications of both, and does so in a manner that is engaging, enjoyable, and exceptionally clear.There are many features of the text that enhance its accessibility to students and that will promote learning more than most similar resources. First, throughout the book, Dr. Strong's writing is excellent. She manages to strike a balance between writing in a conversational tone and including the necessary details that I think is very effective. I also appreciated how often she directly addresses potential points of confusion or difficulty in understanding and working with specific equations. Sometimes this takes the form of building up readers' intuitions regarding the relevant phenomena, while in other cases, she offers concrete tips for thinking about and working with expressions. Finally, the text is richly illustrated, with careful attention paid to color-coding consistency in diagrams and equations. In both cases, I think this is a simple strategy for helping students follow key relationships across pages and sections that is executed very well. I would also be remiss if I didn't spare at least a few lines for the excellent final section detailing several experiments that readers can carry out with everyday materials to make observations of optical phenomena. Each of these is an excellent opportunity to make technical concepts concrete for students and, if nothing else, will be a great deal of fun. To summarize, Introduction to Visual Optics: A Light Approach is an excellent resource for instructors and students. It combines accessible writing with expert coverage of quantitative concepts, including many demonstration and practice problems designed to build up and test conceptual understanding. This is an excellent addition to the field, and I hope will be an entry point to visual optics for many students.Ben BalasDr. Balas received his SB and PhD from MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Science in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Following this, he completed post-doctoral work at Children's Hospital Boston and MIT before joining the Psychology faculty at North Dakota State University in 2011, where he is currently the James A. Meier Professor of Psychology. As an instructor, he focuses as much as possible on using hands-on, analog demonstrations of visual and cognitive phenomena to support student learning and increase engagement. Besides his scientific pursuits, he is an adequate artist, is a dreadful chess player, and has a great affinity for comic books.