At a moment when amphibians are undergoing declines and disappearances and being held up as indicators of environmental health, the appearance of this book could not be more timely. While there are a number of textbooks that capably treat the biology of amphibians, their coverage of behavior and ecology is usually brief and superficial.
Neither adjective fits this well organized book. I am sure some will end up using it in support of graduate and upper level undergraduate courses, however I would hesitate to call it a textbook. Instead it reads much more like a literature review, or really a set of literature reviews. Each is enormously comprehensive and all are written accessibly given their subject matter. In the areas I know best, the author has gone to great lengths to be both thorough and balanced in his presentation of competing evidence and shows shrewd judgment in his conclusions. The frequent use of figures and other graphics from primary literature is also effective.
It is increasingly uncommon for an academic to dedicate this degree of effort to a single publication. The scholarship is extraordinarily thorough and the writing invites the reader to plunge ahead. Even specialists will find it amazing how much work is being done on amphibians and in such a wide array of topics. That one person could master all of this literature is staggering. For the rest of us that have not, this book is a tremendous bootstrap to amphibian literacy.
If you are interested in the ecology and behavior of amphibians this is the book.