I found this book easy to read. There was a nice layout to the page, and not too many colours. The text itself had a nice rhythm and narrative to it: it seemed quite natural. Further into the book, however, the code-to-text description ratio exceeds my threshold.
I like that there is not too much filler in Chapter 1, and that there is an actual program that students can try (since programming is one of the major goals in the course).
The objects coverage is done well (they actually illustrate the idea of references when they talk about declaring and constructing objects, unlike of the objecs-middle texts I have read, like Koffman and Wolz). The text does delve into graphics a bit more than I would wish (Chapter 4 is heavy on the graphics, light on the applets).
The chapters on iteration and decisions are thorough enough.
I like some of the extra material, but the "common mistakes" are not a good idea (in my opinion). Or rather, they should be grouped in some well indexed chapter, and not scattered throughout. I am not a believer in the teaching style of "don't do this, and here is why."
If this text was adopted, there would have be some juggling of chapters: arrays are very late (Chapter 13), and chapters 7 to 12 probably would not be covered. This book is okay: I think it could work, but it doesn't bowl me over.