<pre>
Author/s : Michael Morrison
Publisher : O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Review : Link
Reviewed by : Katrina Owen
Rating : 9 horseshoes</pre>
Head First JavaScript starts off by illustrating why JavaScript can be useful (adding pizzaz, interactivity, and excitement to a website), and then goes about leading the reader in experiments, exercises, and games which introduce various aspects of the language: variables, scope, objects, control statements, and events. The book also introduces debugging and very basic Ajax.
The irreverent Head First style cleverly disguises the fact that you will walk away from the book understanding 'stuff'. This is not a recipe book, and it is not a code mill. The examples are for one purpose only: trick your brain into understanding a concept. The exercises do the same thing - often adding emotional spice by letting you walk straight into a trap (a typical mistake made by most novices), and then helping you understand exactly why you made that particular mistake on the very next page.
Did someone say "Just in Time" learning?
If you are a JavaScript guru, the book will probably be an entertaining read, but not much more than that. If the extent of your javascript knowledge is copying and pasting scripts written sometime prior to y2k and then tearing your hair out when they don't work the way you need them to, then this is the perfect place to start gaining the proficiency you need to start writing your own scripts from scratch.
Head First JavaScript is a great foundation, and will have you reading and enjoying more advanced texts in no time.
More info at Amazon.com [ June 06, 2008: Message edited by: Book Review Team ]