jQuery is an open-source JavaScript library, which has completely changed the way, client-side web development was done using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With the growing popularity of jQuery, it becomes imperative for web developers to learn and take advantage of jQuery, and books are one of the best ways to learn jQuery. In this article, I am going to share your top 5 jQuery books from my personal collection, which I have looked at and researched before purchasing my first book on jQuery, Head First JQuery. Since I like to follow one book at a time, I didn't bother to look into another must-read book, JQuery in Action, until I have finished formerly.
After finishing my first book on jQuery, I am quite comfortable with jQuery magic, which means doing things like DOM Selection, traversal, DOM manipulation based on a CSS selector, animation, and cool effects, and responding to user actions (event handling) in a couple of lines.
In short, jQuery is powerful, yet easy to understand, very succinct and a must-have skill for web programmers and web developers in there resume. I personally believe that you at least read a couple of jQuery books to not only gain confidence but also to be familiar with subtle details of the jQuery library itself.
Though nothing beats documentation, as they are the one, which is most up-to-date, but following a book with simple examples is a totally different learning experience, especially if you are beginners and not an expert of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Btw, things have also changed on JavaScript side with so many advancements in JavaScript ES 6, ES7, and versions, many things which we used to do with jQuery is now possible to do with plain JavaScript. If you want to learn more about Modern JavaScript features, I recommend you to check out the Modern JavaScript Bootcamp course by Andrew Mead on Udemy.
Head First examples are more like real-life projects than a trivial example from nowhere, you feel doing real work while following this jQuery book. Apart from that, they also provide code including HTML and CSS and promote best practices around structuring your HTML documents and Cascading style sheets.
Another worth mentioning thing about this jQuery book is focusing on the most important details and bringing them forward if you are in a hurry, then this is the book to follow. You will also find lots of puzzles, interesting questions, fireside talk (simply fantastic for comparative learning) and usual head first ways to teach concepts. In short a must-read jQuery book for any beginner, which is familiar with HTML, CSS, and bit of JavaScript.
You can also combine this book with The Complete jQuery Course: From Beginner To Advanced! online course on Udemy to get a more hands-on and practical learning experience.
If you are completely new in web development and not very confident with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript then you can also take a look at Head First HTML and CSS and Head First JavaScript, completely worth of money. I think you might also get a discounted offer if you buy more than one book on Amazon.
Yehuda Katz has been contributing to jQuery and heading up their plug-in development team, while Bear Bibeault is very senior in the area of web application development and already co-author books like Ajax in Practice.
This jQuery book is really good for both beginners and developers with some experience, it's well structured with lots of useful examples, which are easy to follow. One thing, which I personally like is their explanation of jQuery Event handling and how that works internally using JavaScript.
They have also done a good job of explaining, how jQuery can be used to Crete web pages, which can handle cross-browser compatibility issues. In short, one of the best jQuery books in the market. You can also combine this book with the jQuery Fundamentals By Dan Wahlin on Pluralsight for active learning. This will help you to learn jQuery quicker and better.
Though this book assumes, you should have a fair knowledge of HTML and CSS, and comfortable with the syntax of JavaScript, no knowledge of jQuery is assumed, which is what works in beginners favors.
I wouldn't say a must-read jQuery book if you have already read the previous two books, but if you connect with this book, after reading sample chapters, then it's worth buying. Currently, the latest edition of this book is the fourth edition, which brings a few more changes from recent jQuery releases.
If you have not yet purchased this book then its better to go for the fourth edition rather than the third or second edition, of-course until you are not getting them as FREE or at a dirt-cheap price.
Like the Head First and Manning's"Action" series, the Cookbook series from O'Reilly is also a popular series and can be a valuable addition to any web developer's bookshelf. Since the jQuery cookbook is written to accommodate common problems and there tried and tested solutions, three is a good chance that you will find the solution to your practical problems there.
In short, if you like cookbooks and enjoy reading them than this is one of the best jQuery books for you. It's also a very good book for busy developers, who like to try out examples rather than reading theories.
By following simple examples and how to do in jQuery sort of code snippet, you will automatically learn what is needed to implement them. In short, if you are a busy developer, go for this jQuery book.
This also presents lots of advanced stuff including jQuery plug-ins, which is good, once you are familiar with basics. Overall, I suggest reading a couple of sample chapters, and if you connect with this book than consider buying it.
By the way don't god with title, from novice to Ninja, don't expect to become master of jQuery by just reading this book :), you need to lot of jQuery coding, before coming close to efficiently use them. If you need a course to go along with this book, I recommend you to check out Up and Running with jQuery on Udemy. This is a great course from a beginner's perspective.
That's all on this list of best jQuery books for beginners and intermediate web developers. Since jQuery is very popular in modern-day web development, there are many books and materials available. One thing, which you start using, once you have basic knowledge of jQuery is there API documentation. They also have working examples and demo, which can be handy along with following any of these jQuery books. Senior web programmers and jQuery developers, let us know if you come across a good book on jQuery, which is not included in this list.
other JavaScript and jQuery tutorials you may like to explore the
P. S. - A good knowledge of Modern JavaScript is essential for any web developer as now you can do most of the things in plain JavaScript which requires jQuery earlier. If you want to learn Modern JavaScript or level up your skills, then I suggest you join The Complete JavaScript Course: Build Real Project by Jonas Scmedtmann on Udemy.
After finishing my first book on jQuery, I am quite comfortable with jQuery magic, which means doing things like DOM Selection, traversal, DOM manipulation based on a CSS selector, animation, and cool effects, and responding to user actions (event handling) in a couple of lines.
In short, jQuery is powerful, yet easy to understand, very succinct and a must-have skill for web programmers and web developers in there resume. I personally believe that you at least read a couple of jQuery books to not only gain confidence but also to be familiar with subtle details of the jQuery library itself.
Though nothing beats documentation, as they are the one, which is most up-to-date, but following a book with simple examples is a totally different learning experience, especially if you are beginners and not an expert of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Btw, things have also changed on JavaScript side with so many advancements in JavaScript ES 6, ES7, and versions, many things which we used to do with jQuery is now possible to do with plain JavaScript. If you want to learn more about Modern JavaScript features, I recommend you to check out the Modern JavaScript Bootcamp course by Andrew Mead on Udemy.
5 Must read jQuery Books to learn jQuery
Without wasting any more of your time, here are the best books you can read to learn jQuery in depth. I have also mentioned a couple of useful online courses along with books as I found that you can learn better and quicker by combining books with a course. They provide active learning and they are also very affordable. You can get most of these courses for $10 which is most of the time, 1/3 of the cost of the book.1. Head First jQuery
I am a big fan of Head First series, having already read a couple of there best titles like Head first design pattern, It didn't take me long to purchase my first jQuery book, Head First jQuery and as always I am pretty satisfied. There are a lot of good things about this book, but one thing which differentiates this jQuery book with others is the quality of exercise.Head First examples are more like real-life projects than a trivial example from nowhere, you feel doing real work while following this jQuery book. Apart from that, they also provide code including HTML and CSS and promote best practices around structuring your HTML documents and Cascading style sheets.
Another worth mentioning thing about this jQuery book is focusing on the most important details and bringing them forward if you are in a hurry, then this is the book to follow. You will also find lots of puzzles, interesting questions, fireside talk (simply fantastic for comparative learning) and usual head first ways to teach concepts. In short a must-read jQuery book for any beginner, which is familiar with HTML, CSS, and bit of JavaScript.
You can also combine this book with The Complete jQuery Course: From Beginner To Advanced! online course on Udemy to get a more hands-on and practical learning experience.
If you are completely new in web development and not very confident with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript then you can also take a look at Head First HTML and CSS and Head First JavaScript, completely worth of money. I think you might also get a discounted offer if you buy more than one book on Amazon.
2. jQuery in Action - Manning
Similar to the Head First series, another series which I like is Manning "Action" series, they have published several best selling titles under this series and "jQuery in Action, Second Edition" is one of them. I read this book because of there authors Bear Bibeault and Yehuda Katz, which are real jQuery and JavaScript experts and know subtle details of both.Yehuda Katz has been contributing to jQuery and heading up their plug-in development team, while Bear Bibeault is very senior in the area of web application development and already co-author books like Ajax in Practice.
This jQuery book is really good for both beginners and developers with some experience, it's well structured with lots of useful examples, which are easy to follow. One thing, which I personally like is their explanation of jQuery Event handling and how that works internally using JavaScript.
They have also done a good job of explaining, how jQuery can be used to Crete web pages, which can handle cross-browser compatibility issues. In short, one of the best jQuery books in the market. You can also combine this book with the jQuery Fundamentals By Dan Wahlin on Pluralsight for active learning. This will help you to learn jQuery quicker and better.
3. Learning jQuery Fourth Edition
The "Learning jQuery 1.3: Better Interaction Design and Web Development with Simple JavaScript Techniques" By Karl Swedberg and Jonathan Chaffer are other good jQuery books for beginners. This book teach jQuery in really nice ways, building on your previous experience and knowledge, there contextual examples and explanation, makes it easy to learn and comprehend jQuery functions.Though this book assumes, you should have a fair knowledge of HTML and CSS, and comfortable with the syntax of JavaScript, no knowledge of jQuery is assumed, which is what works in beginners favors.
I wouldn't say a must-read jQuery book if you have already read the previous two books, but if you connect with this book, after reading sample chapters, then it's worth buying. Currently, the latest edition of this book is the fourth edition, which brings a few more changes from recent jQuery releases.
If you have not yet purchased this book then its better to go for the fourth edition rather than the third or second edition, of-course until you are not getting them as FREE or at a dirt-cheap price.
4. jQuery Cookbook
The jQuery Cookbook: Solutions & Examples for jQuery Developers by Cody Lindley is an ideal book for both jQuery beginners and JavaScript experts alike. It's a cookbook, which starts with fundamentals and then explores more practical uses cases with tested solutions and using best practices to overcome common web development issues.Like the Head First and Manning's"Action" series, the Cookbook series from O'Reilly is also a popular series and can be a valuable addition to any web developer's bookshelf. Since the jQuery cookbook is written to accommodate common problems and there tried and tested solutions, three is a good chance that you will find the solution to your practical problems there.
In short, if you like cookbooks and enjoy reading them than this is one of the best jQuery books for you. It's also a very good book for busy developers, who like to try out examples rather than reading theories.
By following simple examples and how to do in jQuery sort of code snippet, you will automatically learn what is needed to implement them. In short, if you are a busy developer, go for this jQuery book.
5. jQuery: Novice to Ninja
The jQuery: Novice to Ninja By Earle Castledine and Craig Sharkie is a comprehensive jQuery book of 480 pages. The First Edition of this book was hugely popular and now Second Edition is also available. I haven't read this book completely, but whatever I read, I found them really interesting. This books mix JavaScript best practices and explain subtle details with ease.This also presents lots of advanced stuff including jQuery plug-ins, which is good, once you are familiar with basics. Overall, I suggest reading a couple of sample chapters, and if you connect with this book than consider buying it.
By the way don't god with title, from novice to Ninja, don't expect to become master of jQuery by just reading this book :), you need to lot of jQuery coding, before coming close to efficiently use them. If you need a course to go along with this book, I recommend you to check out Up and Running with jQuery on Udemy. This is a great course from a beginner's perspective.
That's all on this list of best jQuery books for beginners and intermediate web developers. Since jQuery is very popular in modern-day web development, there are many books and materials available. One thing, which you start using, once you have basic knowledge of jQuery is there API documentation. They also have working examples and demo, which can be handy along with following any of these jQuery books. Senior web programmers and jQuery developers, let us know if you come across a good book on jQuery, which is not included in this list.
other JavaScript and jQuery tutorials you may like to explore the
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P. S. - A good knowledge of Modern JavaScript is essential for any web developer as now you can do most of the things in plain JavaScript which requires jQuery earlier. If you want to learn Modern JavaScript or level up your skills, then I suggest you join The Complete JavaScript Course: Build Real Project by Jonas Scmedtmann on Udemy.
Hi, Thank you for this good list. Could you mention the best book for absolutely beginner in jQuery? Regards,
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JavaScript is ninja is also a good for JavaScript developre wanted to learn jQuery
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