Top JavaScript books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite JavaScript books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of JavaScript

Understanding the concepts of JavaScript starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Learn JavaScript VISUALLY

Beautifully Illustrated book that teaches javascript fundamentals trough metaphors, analogies and easy step-by-step exercises. Visual learners retain information very differently than their left brained counter-parts, and thus benefit from different approaches.

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Maintainable JavaScript: Writing Readable Code

You may have definite ideas about writing code when working alone, but team development requires that everyone use the same approach. With the JavaScript practices in this book—including code style, programming tips, and automation—you will learn how to write maintainable code that other team members can easily understand, adapt, and extend.

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Introducing functional programming with Underscore.js

How can you overcome JavaScript language oddities and unsafe features? With this book, you’ll learn how to create code that’s beautiful, safe, and simple to understand and test by using JavaScript’s functional programming support. Author Michael Fogus shows you how to apply functional-style concepts with Underscore.js, a JavaScript library that facilitates functional programming techniques. Sa…

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Learning JavaScript Design Patterns

Do you want to write beautiful, structured, and maintainable JavaScript by applying modern design patterns to the language? Do you want clean, efficient, manageable code? Want to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices? If so, the updated second edition of Learning JavaScript Design Patterns is the ideal place to start. Author Addy Osmani shows you how to apply modern design patterns to…

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A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript

The author wrote the book and exercises especially for people who are new to programming. Making no assumptions about what you already know, the author walks you through JavaScript slowly, patiently. They explain every little thing in sixth-grade English and avoid unnecessary technical jargon like the plague.

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Pro JavaScript Design Patterns

With Pro JavaScript Design Patterns, you’ll start with the basics of object-oriented programming in JavaScript applicable to design patterns, including making JavaScript more expressive, inheritance, encapsulation, information hiding, and more. The book then details how to implement and take advantage of several design patterns in JavaScript. Each chapter is packed with real-world examples of …

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Additional JavaScript Reading

These books are not required for you to learn JavaScript, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

JavaScript & JQuery: The Missing Manual

JavaScript lets you supercharge your HTML with animation, interactivity, and visual effects

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JavaScript: The Missing Manual

JavaScript is an essential language for creating modern, interactive websites, but its complex rules challenge even the most experienced web designers. With JavaScript: The Missing Manual, you'll quickly learn how to use JavaScript in sophisticated ways -- without pain or frustration -- even if you have little or no programming experience. JavaScript expert David McFarland first teaches you th…

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JavaScript for Impatient Programmers

This book makes JavaScript less challenging to learn for newcomers, by offering a modern view that is as consistent as possible. Highlights: Get started quickly, by initially focusing on modern features. Test-driven exercises and quizzes available for most chapters (sold separately).

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JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development

In JavaScript and jQuery: Interactive Front-End Development, best-selling author Jon Duckett delivers a fully illustrated guide to making your websites more interactive and your interfaces more interesting and intuitive. In the book, you’ll explore basic programming concepts that assume no prior knowledge of programming beyond an ability to create a web page using HTML & CSS. You’ll use core e…

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JavaScript: The Good Parts

Considered the JavaScript expert by many people in the development community, author Douglas Crockford identifies the abundance of good ideas that make JavaScript an outstanding object-oriented programming language-ideas such as functions, loose typing, dynamic objects, and an expressive object literal notation. Unfortunately, these good ideas are mixed in with bad and downright awful ideas, l…

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You Don't Know JS: Scope & Closures

No matter how much experience you have with JavaScript, odds are you don’t fully understand the language. This concise yet in-depth guide takes you inside scope and closures, two core concepts you need to know to become a more efficient and effective JavaScript programmer. You’ll learn how and why they work, and how an understanding of closures can be a powerful part of your development skills…

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Specializations and Deeper JavaScript Knowledge

You've got your basics in order – time to move on to some advanced and specialized concepts. JavaScript is evolving every day, these books can help you master it.

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Master the World's Most-Used Programming Language

JavaScript is the programming language of the web and is used by more software developers today than any other programming language. For nearly 25 years this best seller has been the go-to guide for JavaScript programmers. The seventh edition is fully updated to cover the 2020 version of JavaScript, and new chapters cover classes, modules, iterators, generators, Promises, async/await, and meta…

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This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

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