As a retired corporate analyst who often was called upon to sit through long and boring presentations, I found Thomas Baker’s book about the Japanese technique ‘Pecha Kucha’ fascinating. In Pecha, each presenter has just 20 slides and he/she must present them within 20 seconds. Because of this limited time frame, the presenter is, thereby, forced to focus tightly on selecting the precise word or words to go with each slide. This technique has been used successfully in the classroom, most notably, and surprisingly, in teaching the English language.

Through Prof. Baker’s clever use of “links” (in his ebook), photos, and with his gentle writing style, he takes the reader through the history of the Pecha as well as describing in detail the technique itself. This book is a “must read” for educators and those in the corporate world who find themselves working with the shortened attention span of the “tweeting and texting” generation.

The old adage “A picture paints a thousand words” is what Pecha is all about. Thank you, Professor Baker for bringing this important subject to our attention and writing about it so eloquently.