Home Emergency Pocket Guide

This is a good reference tool for use in the heart of the emergency. It's more limited as a preparation tool because of its small size and lack of a traditional table of contents. Most of the information needed to prepare for a disaster is in there -- it's just hard to find.

I would suggest getting this reference guide and placing it with your emergency supplies. There are places to jot down local phone numbers and meeting places, something I'd certainly do before stashing it away. The guide is waterproof, and the pages are almost impossible to tear (I'm sure you could if you tried hard enough). It's small size makes it perfect for a pocket or purse, but it also makes reading some of the longer paragraphs somewhat cumbersome. There are places to write information in the book, but the small pages make it hard to fit everything you may want to jot down.

I was disappointed that there is no table of contents other than a bulleted list on the front cover. The colors of the bulleted items on the cover don't seem to match the tabs where the information could be found. Corresponding colors would make up for the lack of a table of contents. There is a limited index on the back cover, which is helpful if the needed topic is listed.

I've used a pocket reference guide from this publisher for years. It's one of my favorite reference tools. This pocket guide is the publisher's first product aimed at the general public. The publisher sent me a review copy free of charge. Overall, the guide is well written and follows current guidelines. This publisher has a good track record of updating its other reference guides frequently, which bodes well for this book.