JavaScript for Kids

A Playful Introduction to Programming

by Nick Morgan

December 2014, 336 pp.

ISBN-13:

978-1-59327-408-5

Full Color

"I’ve fallen in love with a book. Like fallen head-over-heels, carry-it-all-around-town, sneak-in-pages-whenever-I-can in love. The real deal."
—GeekDad (Read more)

"An absolutely phenomenal guide with a crisp design and clear, concise explanations."
—Kirkus Reviews (Read more)

"Does a great job of clearly presenting programming concepts like data types, control structures, functions strings, arrays, loops. Nothing is dumbed down."
—Boing Boing (Read more)

Look Inside!

JavaScript is the programming language of the Internet, the secret sauce that makes the Web awesome, your favorite sites interactive, and online games fun!

JavaScript for Kids is a lighthearted introduction that teaches programming essentials through patient, step-by-step examples paired with funny illustrations. You’ll begin with the basics, like working with strings, arrays, and loops, and then move on to more advanced topics, like building interactivity with jQuery and drawing graphics with Canvas.

Along the way, you’ll write games such as Find the Buried Treasure, Hangman, and Snake. You’ll also learn how to:

Create functions to organize and reuse your code
Write and modify HTML to create dynamic web pages
Use the DOM and jQuery to make your web pages react to user input
Use the Canvas element to draw and animate graphics
Program real user-controlled games with collision detection and score keeping

With visual examples like bouncing balls, animated bees, and racing cars, you can really see what you’re programming. Each chapter builds on the last, and programming challenges at the end of each chapter will stretch your brain and inspire your own amazing programs. Make something cool with JavaScript today!

Ages 10+ (and their parents!)

Author Bio

Nick Morgan is a British front-end engineer at Twitter. He loves all programming languages but has a particular soft spot for JavaScript. Nick lives in San Francisco (the foggy part) with his girlfriend and their fluffy dog, Pancake. He occasionally blogs at skilldrick.co.uk.

Table of contents

Introduction

Part I: Fundamentals

Chapter 1: What Is JavaScript?
Chapter 2: Data Types and Variables
Chapter 3: Arrays
Chapter 4: Objects
Chapter 5: The Basics of HTML
Chapter 6: Conditionals and Loops
Chapter 7: Creating a Hangman Game
Chapter 8: Functions

Part II: Advanced JavaScript

Chapter 9: The DOM and jQuery
Chapter 10: Interactive Programming
Chapter 11: Find the Buried Treasure!
Chapter 12: Object-Oriented Programming

Part III: Canvas

Chapter 13: The canvas Element
Chapter 14: Making Things Move on the Canvas
Chapter 15: Controlling Animations with the Keyboard
Chapter 16: Making a Snake Game: Part 1
Chapter 17: Making a Snake Game: Part 2

Afterword: Where to Go from Here
Glossary
Index

View the detailed Table of Contents (PDF)
View the Index (PDF)

Reviews

"Vibrant and visually engaging, with chuckle-worthy asides...instructive and kid-friendly."
—School Library Journal, The Maker Issue (Read more)

"I'd recommend this book for anyone in middle school through to retirement who wants to see what programming is all about, but wants a gentle, fun introduction."
—IT World (Read more)

"This exists and it looks awesome."
—Khoi Vinh, Former NYTIMES.com design director

"An interesting kid focused JavaScript book from No Starch."
—Peter Cooper, curator of JavaScript Weekly

"Has your child resolved to learn to code in 2015? Check out this new book."
—Girl Develop It, Ann Arbor

"We had a JS workshop for kids 9-12 last Friday and it helped very much when it came to explaining various concepts—Nick is great! "
—Kathryn Barrett, Ladies Learning Code

"May work well as the source material for something like Code Club."
—Alex Young, Editor-in-Chief of DailyJS

"I wish I had had something like this when I was 10. The book is very thorough yet accessible."
—Malte Ubl, Curator of JSConfEU

"Another winner from No-Starch Press."
—Tim Cox, MagPi Magazine (Read more)

"This is the kind of book I would easily recommend for the beginning Web coder."
—Bismark Tribune (Read more)

"Boy asks 'Dad, can we do some NEW programming?' So, we are now on Chapter 1 of JavaScript for Kids. 'Dad, JavaScript is kinda fun.'"
—Kevin Stewart, Director of Engineering at Adobe

"I wish I had a book like this when I was learning programming over 20 years ago."
—Tim Caswell, Nodejs hacker and teacher

"This book takes the mantle of the 'Dummies' series for learning complex subjects...highly recommended."
—Becky Walton, MLIS, Ingram Collection Development (Read more)

"A fantastic primer that is both immensely educational and wildly fun."
—Outright Geekery (Read more)

"Fantastic...one of the best and most comfortable introductions to a real and useful programming language we've seen."
—Ric Getter for MacDirectory Magazine

"Whether you’re 10 or 110, this book can be a fun way to start learning how to code. This book doesn’t talk down to its audience, so no matter your age, if you’re looking for a relaxed and enjoyable introduction to JavaScript, this book is for you."
—DevMountain, 10 best programming books

Updates

View the latest errata.