My question is relatively simple: what introductory textbooks on mathematical modeling exist out there that require only a background in calculus and linear algebra (but ***do not*** require that the reader has attended a course in differential equations per se)?

The only two such textbooks that I know of are Kai Velten's ["Mathematical Modeling and Simulation"](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/3527407588) and Giordano *et al*'s ["A First Course in Mathematical Modeling"](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1285050908). Giordano is great at building intuition but is outrageously expensive, and Velten - though being a wonderful book - sometimes approaches topics too abstractly given his intended audience or, rather, fails to appropriately expound on certain abstract definitions.

As such, I'm looking for additional sources that meet these criteria.