Highly Readable and Engaging Text! 
The text is extremely readable, engaging, and instructive without compromising the scope of the ACM CS 103 (formally CS2) course material. It keeps students engaged inside and outside the classroom in the process of self-directed investigative discovery.

Expanded coverage of hashing!
Devotes and entire chapter to data structures that use hashing algorithms, presenting them as a separate data structure category, hashing structures.  Included within the text are unique treatments of the auxiliary algorithms and code necessary to implement hashed date structures such as prime number generators, efficient collision algorithms, and ASCII key preprocessing algorithms as well as implementations and performance analysis of an efficient hashed data structure.

A Unique Approach to Generics!
The generic features introduced to write generic methods and classes are introduced early in the text as part of the Java review. The use of these features is then illustrated by converting an array-based data structure to a fully generic data structure.

Methodized approach to recursion
The text presents a unique pedagogical approach to recursion that methodizes the formulation of recursive algorithms in order to teach students how to think recursively. Once comfortable with the methodology, the student is presented with examples that require the methodology be progressively modified in order to discover their recursive solution.

Animation courseware!
The pedagogical features of the text are significantly enhanced by animation courseware that can be run under any Java-enabled browser. The animations demonstrate the functionality of the algorithms associated with each data structure presented in the text by presenting the changes that take place in main memory as the algorithms execute.