Rating: 
Summary: Good for its intended audience.
Review: This book is geared towards beginning programmers. In this regard, it's a great book and is good at teaching the basics of JavaScript. However, if you're an experienced programmer, you may want something more to the point. The author does a good job of talking about programming for various browsers and pitfalls to look out for, and will get you up to speed with JavaScript quickly.Because this book is a tutorial, the author recommends picking up another JavaScript book for reference, and I agree. Read (or skim if you're not new to programming) through the book and do the exercises to get a feel for the language, then refer to a JavaScript reference book for more technical details and comprehensive information.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice for basics
Review: This book is really a gentle introduction to Javascript. I think it is aimed more at the hobbyist, or someone wondering into Javascript who just wants to have a look see first. It will teach the basics, which may be enough for most people who just want to jazz up their site, but it also gives you a good foundation to move onto more advanced text. The book also includes assignment questions at the end of most chapters so you can test what you have learnt. The answers are in the back of the book. Assignment questions are such a valuable asset to programming publications but sadly most don't include them. The book also has a nice DOM reference listing the properties and methods for most objects, however it isn't a complete reference. I used this book with Beginning Javascript (wrox press), I think the two publications compliment each other well.
Rating:
Summary: overall, a very good book.
Review: This book was very good for what it was intended to be, a gateway into javascript. Ofcourse one will not find every detail of javascript in this book. It was designed for the newbie. Every topic was well written and easily understood. The only problem I had with it was the part about functions. Using this as my first real programming language, I didn't know the fundamentals. The book did not describe how functions worked very well, hence why I have it a rating of a 4 and not a 5. It was not untill I learned some c++ that i understood functions and was able to come back and relearn all the javascript. all in all the book was VERY good and I HIGHLY recomend it to any newbie to javascript or to programming. (ofcourse javascript requires a good understanding of html Before you learn javascript, that was my disclaimer incase and real newbies were reading.
Rating:
Summary: overall, a very good book.
Review: This book was very good for what it was intended to be, a gateway into javascript. Ofcourse one will not find every detail of javascript in this book. It was designed for the newbie. Every topic was well written and easily understood. The only problem I had with it was the part about functions. Using this as my first real programming language, I didn't know the fundamentals. The book did not describe how functions worked very well, hence why I have it a rating of a 4 and not a 5. It was not untill I learned some c++ that i understood functions and was able to come back and relearn all the javascript. all in all the book was VERY good and I HIGHLY recomend it to any newbie to javascript or to programming. (ofcourse javascript requires a good understanding of html Before you learn javascript, that was my disclaimer incase and real newbies were reading.
Rating:
Summary: awesome book!
Review: This is a great book for anyone beginning, halfway through, or an expert on JavaScript. Thau explains everything simply and gives good tips as well. Just a warning however. One of the files in the "1st page" editor (ON THE INCLUDED CD-ROM) shows up as a worm on an anti-virus scanner. Something called "Seven Buttons from Hell"or something to that effect. Other than that, fantastic book!
Rating: 
Summary: Javascript Cookbook
Review: This is more of a cookbook than a true guide. Thau uses examples he lifts from other sites to make each example. The reason I label it more cookbook than guide is the entire book is laid out poorly from start to finish with no sense of overall reason. So, judging from that angle this book does an acceptable job of presenting the material. It shoots from one topic to the next, with barely enough time spent explaining the first before presenting the second. The best example would be to picture a ferret on speed the understand the lack of depth offered by this book. Based upon that, it does cover a significant number of topics, just none of them in detail. The biggest fault is that you can get better (meaning less typos and mistakes) code and example freely on the web than is offered in the book. So, use this book as a launching pad for discovering better resources elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Very easy to read and follow instructions.
Review: While other books discuss in debth detail of JavaScript, this book does a good job "giving the reader a break." Keeping things light. Examples are well defined and organized. I did not feel choking on too much details. Also, the type set was very nice for reading. pvr-consulting.
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