Learn to Code by Building Real Projects, Step by Step

Read before you buy: the PDF here is a free sample — the first 20 pages of the 302-page book (payments, sales and reviews on this demo site are sample data). Get the full e-book at thenexbooks on Gumroad.

Learn JavaScript the way it sticks: by building things.

Reading about variables and loops is useful, but the ideas really click when you use them to make something that works. This book teaches JavaScript from the very beginning, entirely through projects. In every chapter you learn a small set of ideas, explained patiently with short examples, and then build a complete, working app with them — one step at a time. No experience, no frameworks, no complicated tools: just HTML, CSS, and modern JavaScript in your browser.

• 620 pages · 28 chapters + 4 appendices
• For complete beginners — every idea explained from scratch
• A complete project in every chapter, built step by step, with the full files at the end
• Fundamentals: variables, strings, numbers, decisions, loops, functions, arrays, objects
• Array methods, debugging, and reading error messages with confidence
• The DOM, events, forms, validation, and a complete to-do app
• localStorage and JSON, dates, timers, modules, and classes
• Async JavaScript, fetch, search and sort, and friendly error handling
• Bigger projects: a quiz game, a budget tracker with a chart, and a multi-view recipe box
• A first look at Node.js and how to share your projects with Git and GitHub Pages

Table Of Contents

Part I — First Steps

• Ch 1 · Hello, JavaScript: Setting Up and Your First Program
• Ch 2 · Values, Variables, and Operators
• Ch 3 · Working with Strings and Numbers
• Ch 4 · Making Decisions with if, else, and switch
• Ch 5 · Loops and Repetition

Part II — Building Blocks

• Ch 6 · Functions: Reusable Pieces of Code
• Ch 7 · Arrays: Working with Lists
• Ch 8 · Objects: Grouping Related Data
• Ch 9 · Array Methods: map, filter, find, and reduce
• Ch 10 · Debugging and Handling Errors

Part III — The Browser and the DOM

• Ch 11 · Just Enough HTML and CSS for JavaScript
• Ch 12 · The DOM: Finding and Changing Elements
• Ch 13 · Events: Responding to Clicks, Keys, and Input
• Ch 14 · Forms and Validation
• Ch 15 · Project: Building a To-Do App

Part IV — Data, Time, and Organization

• Ch 16 · Saving Data with localStorage and JSON
• Ch 17 · Dates and Times
• Ch 18 · Timers and Simple Animation
• Ch 19 · Organizing Code: Modules and Classes

Part V — Talking to the Internet

• Ch 20 · Asynchronous JavaScript: Callbacks, Promises, and async/await
• Ch 21 · Fetching Data from APIs
• Ch 22 · Search, Filter, and Sort
• Ch 23 · Handling Errors, Loading, and Empty States

Part VI — Bigger Projects and Next Steps

• Ch 24 · Project: Quiz Game with Scores and High Scores
• Ch 25 · Project: Budget Tracker with a Simple Chart
• Ch 26 · Project: Recipe Box — a Multi-View App
• Ch 27 · JavaScript Beyond the Browser: A First Look at Node.js
• Ch 28 · Next Steps: Sharing Your Projects and Keep Learning

Appendices

• App A · JavaScript Cheat Sheet
• App B · Project Starter Templates and DOM Reference
• App C · Checklists
• App D · Glossary

WHO IT IS FOR
Complete beginners, students in a first web or programming course, designers and career changers who want to add interactivity to web pages, and self-taught learners who want to build complete projects on their own.

FORMAT
PDF (A4), 620 pages delivered as 2 files (Part 1: Chapters 1–15; Part 2: Chapters 16–28 and the appendices), English, with PDF bookmarks. 1st Edition, 2026. Published by thenexbooks.

Book details