Algebra 2

Algebra 2

I have a young friend taking Algebra 2 at a local, well regarded, high school and I asked the student about it. He was non-committal; it was a course he had to take and hence deal with. The instructor jumped around in the book and didn't hand homework or tests back promptly. I asked about the text for the course. He said that he didn't read it, just used it for the problems assigned.
I asked him to let me look at it.
The book is Algebra 2 by Larson, Boswell, Kanold and Stiff. It was published in 2001 and I presume it is the First Edition.
The first thing that struck me about the book was its weight. It can't be read while holding it; you have to put it on a desk.
It has 1000 pages. and there are 17 pages in the Table of Contents. It is my contention that a high school algebra text doesn't need 1000 pages. You should be able to lift it with one hand.
This book follows the recent practice in mathematics texts of having every topic that anyone ever suggested to the authors. Since the whole book can't be covered in a finite amount of time, an instructor has to jump around.
The general format was childish with cute pictures and shaded or boxed formulae. I don't know why the "real world" applications were put in. They weren't covered in sufficient detail to give the student any real information. They seemed to be stuck in so that the authors could say they had "real world" applications. This was true about most of the topics covered.

I started with Chapter 2. Quotation indicate material taken directly from the book.

"Chapter 2 is about linear equations and functions." Does the adjective "linear" modify "equations and functions" or just "equations"?
A further reading seems to indicate that linear modifies just equations. The chapter is about functions and linear equations. Why these two topics are paired is less clear.
"A relation is a mapping, or pairing, of input values with output values."
What is a mapping? What is a pairing? What is an "input value"? What is an "output value"? Input to what? Output from what?
"Relations (and functions) between two quantities can be represented in many ways, including mapping diagrams, tables, graphs, equations and verbal descriptions."
What is a "mapping diagram"? What is a graph?
In the next paragraph "graphing" is used as a verb. I never did see a definition of "graph" although on the following page "graph" is used as a noun. I couldn't find any place where graph was defined.
I read more of the book, jumping around as seemed to be the drill when using it.
Rules are given for the computation of the determinant of a 2X2 and 3X3 matrix. Rules are given to find the inverses of these matrices. Rules, rules everywhere nor any reason why.
It is beyond my comprehension why this book was chosen. Maybe straws were drawn. It is unbelievably bad. I would be interested in hearing someone defend it.