5.0 out of 5 stars
The Book on JavaScript I've Been Looking For
Reviewed in the United States on 13 September 2015
I saw some negative reviews from folks who bought this book for their kids who then struggled with the exercises. I can't speak to that specifically since I bought this book for my own Javascript education, but I will say this: as an adult who struggled to learn JavaScript, this book really opened things up for me. And as someone who has been trying to grasp JavaScript for awhile, I think I can offer some insight as to why it can be a difficult language to learn.
First, in order to understand JavaScript well, you need to on some level be able to think like a programmer. I think it's possible that kids and adults without any previous programming experience can struggle to learn JavaScript for this reason. I picked up HTML and CSS fairly easily, but those languages don't require you to provide step-by-step instructions to a browser in the same level of detail. When you work in JavaScript, you are writing programs that need to be executed line-by-line, and since humans don't innately think like web browsers, it can be easy to get confused! (Actually, you're writing for a compiler that interprets the code for the computer, but that's a topic for another day.)
Another reason why JavaScript can be a bit frustrating is the syntax can be a pain, especially if you're not used to it. The commands have to come in a specific order so the computer can understand them. In addition, there are a lot of parentheses, curly braces, and semi-colons, and if just one of them is out of place, the browser will return errors. Yes, this makes JavaScript a bit of a chore at first, but it gets more automatic with practice. Just like we all had to learn grammar, syntax, and punctuation in our native language in order to communicate clearly, we need to put in the time to learn the language of JavaScript.
That said, I credit Nick Morgan and his book for helping me learn to think like a programmer. He explains each step of the code in plain English with numbered diagrams that are very easy to follow. Some of the challenges took me longer than I would have liked, but I don't consider that to be the fault of the book -- it's just because I am trying to learn something new. So for kids who want to learn JavaScript and continued to struggle with this book, I would encourage the parents to read this book along with their kids and guide them through the exercises until they've got the hang of it. They will learn to do fun things, like create random insult generators, a hangman game, and much more, but more importantly, they will be gaining skills that are in high demand. Nearly every web browser has JavaScript installed, and it is the most popular programming language in the world. Think about those implications for a second and the career options it will give them if they start early and learn to power through.
Finally, I will offer one more suggestion for those who want to learn JavaScript but who continue to be frustrated. I am attending a web developer boot camp this fall with a concentration in JavaScript, and the course work starts out with PHP, which is a back-end programming language. My guess is that they will use PHP to help us get into the mindset of a programmer. For the C# track, the school I'm attending starts students out with Python. Both JavaScript and C# are C-based programming languages, and the school is starting us off with something else, and my guess is the reasons could include what I've described above -- the C-languages may be more difficult to learn for these reasons. So, for parents who would like to encourage their kids to power through JavaScript, maybe let them try out Python first since there is a book on Python for kids as well. I wish them the best of luck on their journey to learn to code.
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