MathOverflow will be down for maintenance for approximately 3 hours, starting Monday evening (06/24/2013) at approximately 9:00 PM Eastern time (UTC-4).
show/hide this revision's text 2 added 12 characters in body

I rather like Linear Algebra Done Right, and depending on the type of students you are aiming the course for, I would recommend it over Hoffman and Kunze. Since you seemed worried that Axler might be too advanced, my feeling is that Hoffman and Kunze will definitely be (especially if these are students who have never been taught proof-based mathematics).

Of course, the big caveat here being that Axler avoids determinants at all costs, and this will put more on you to introduce them comprehensively.

I've never looked at it, but another one worth considering might be Halmos's Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces.

show/hide this revision's text 1 [made Community Wiki]

I rather like Linear Algebra Done Right, and depending on the type of students you are aiming the course for, I would recommend it over Hoffman and Kunze. Since you seemed worried that Axler might be too advanced, my feeling is that Hoffman and Kunze will definitely be (especially if these are students who have never been taught proof-based mathematics).

Of course, the big caveat here being that Axler avoids determinants at all costs, and this will put more on you to introduce them comprehensively.

I've never looked at it, but another one worth considering might be Halmos's Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces.