Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great beginner's book
Comment: I have no programming experience and am teaching myself JavaScript. I tried a couple of other books, which left me feeling frustrated-even if they were supposed to be for beginners. Desperate, I tried this one and am happy to say that I'm writing small scripts and becoming familiar with all the different options.
The lessons are well written and easy to follow. The little progress checks and tests at the end of the chapters help highlight the lessons and, if you get any answers wrong, show you where to go back to reread/practice. Although a beginner's book, it gives hints of what can be done, which keep me motivated to continue learning.
It may be that I "outgrow" this book at some point, but I'm likely to keep it around for a quick reference.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great beginner book
Comment: This is definitely a book for JavaScript beginners, which is exactly what I needed. It included plenty of examples and even had mastery questions at the end of each of the chapters. But I found the book extremely helpful, even if slightly rudimentary having had some programming experience in other languages. But I liked the step by step approach and getting to know a few of the major objects and concepts in JavaScript.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best beginner's book!
Comment: For someone who wants a beginning book in JavaScript, this is the best book I have come across. (I also have Gosselin's "JavaScript, Third Edition"; the O'Reilly "JavaScript The Definitive Guide"; and the Shelly Cashman series on JavaScript).
My college JavaScript class uses another book (the Gosselin book) as the official textbook of the course. I find I understand everything much better if I read Pollock's chapter(s) first, then go to the Gosselin to read more and do the required exercises.
I'm new to programming and at first, I was struggling in the class. After getting Pollock's book, I've now got an A. Thank you, John Pollock, for a great book!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginners but...
Comment: This may well be a good book to present Java Script to those that have not done any programming in another language and never plan to. However, if (for example) you have any knowledge of C, it will be a dissapointment. This is not because the book assumes no previous programming experience (it does and clearly states this) but it also doesn't take the opportunity to explain the connection between Java Script and other languages, or to explain any logic in the syntax. One example is the (lack of) explanation of why array indexes start with 0 instead of 1. In summary I feel the author has dummed down the material more than is necessary and has lost opportunities to make the language fit into a rational framework.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb book for the beginner...
Comment: Javascript: A Beginner's Guide is the best book that I have seen for beginners. The book is written like a text book and provides novice programmers with information on basic programmer's terminology, etc. Exercises are provided to help develop programming skills. When I start offering javascript class, this will likely be my choice for a textbook.
As a beginner's book, I give this 10 stars. This is a great book for people completely new to programming. For example, graphics designers without programming experience who want to develop web pages could easily use this book to learn javascript. Experienced programmers, however, may find this book to be too elementary. The author takes several pages to define what a variable is, which may be aggravating to experienced programmers who just want to learn a new language.
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