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.

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

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 metaprogramming. You’ll find illuminating and engaging example code throughout.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript

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.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Maintainable JavaScript: Writing Readable Code

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.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

JavaScript: The Good Parts

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, like a programming model based on global variables.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Effective JavaScript

Effective JavaScript

In order to truly master JavaScript, you need to learn how to work effectively with the language’s flexible, expressive features and how to avoid its pitfalls. No matter how long you’ve been writing JavaScript code, Effective JavaScript will help deepen your understanding of this powerful language, so you can build more predictable, reliable, and maintainable programs.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd Edition

Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd Edition

This much anticipated and thoroughly revised third edition of Eloquent JavaScript dives deep into the JavaScript language to show you how to write beautiful, effective code. It has been updated to reflect the current state of JavaScript and web browsers and includes brand-new material on features like class notation, arrow functions, iterators, async functions, template strings, and block scope.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

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: 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 metaprogramming. You’ll find illuminating and engaging example code throughout. This book is for programmers who want to learn JavaScript and for web developers who want to take their understanding and mastery to the next level. It begins by explaining the JavaScript language itself, in detail, from the bottom up. It then builds on that foundation to cover the web platform and Node.js. Topics include:

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Have any other suggestions? Add here.

Augment your JavaScript books

There is no better source of accountability and motivation than having a personal mentor. What used to be impossible to find is now just two clicks away! All mentors are vetted & hands-on!

Only 1 Spot Left

I am a Front End Software Engineer with over 10 years of experience at various tech companies, currently based in Toronto, Canada. I am currently working at Square and was previously at Coinbase, Taplytics. I also have previously mentored at Lighthouse Labs: Canada's Leading Coding Bootcamp. I have professional, hands-on …

$260 / month
  Chat
2 x Calls
Tasks

Only 1 Spot Left

I am a Senior Consultant based in Stoke-on-Trent with over 10 years of Web Development experience from small startups to large corporate companies and more. I have taught junior and mid-level developers at my previous companies new skills and ways of working to help their personal growth. In addition, I …

$240 / month
  Chat
3 x Calls
Tasks

Only 4 Spots Left

I have more than a decade experience in Software Engineering (and related practices including DevOps) and I have been lucky enough to have worked with a bunch of great minds in the big tech giants. I've got a couple of MAANG companies in my kitty and after attending (and cracking) …

$210 / month
  Chat
2 x Calls
Tasks

Only 1 Spot Left

In my 26 year career as a full stack developer I have been fortunate to develop websites for a large range of companies including Microsoft, Bank of Scotland, BBC, British Medical Association, Heriot-Watt University and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. I also created websites for ten different agencies of the …

$200 / month
  Chat
2 x Calls
Tasks

Only 2 Spots Left

https://sanzeev.com.np/ Senior Frontend Engineer with over 12 years of experience and currently working at eBay. My core skills are Node.js, JavaScript, Typescript, HTML, CSS, GraphQL and Ionic/Cordova, and I have worked with frameworks such as Backbone, Angular, React and Marko js. I specialize in web app, hybrid mobile app development …

$240 / month
  Chat
2 x Calls
Tasks

Only 3 Spots Left

I am a full-stack software engineering manager/lead. I started my career as a frontend leaning full-stack engineer, then transitioned into a solely backend role before transitioning to the infrastructure and DevOps side of things. I have helped a number of self taught or recent bootcamp grads land their first job …

$200 / month
  Chat
1 x Call
Tasks

Browse all JavaScript mentors

Still not convinced?
Don’t just take our word for it

We’ve already delivered 1-on-1 mentorship to thousands of students, professionals, managers and executives. Even better, they’ve left an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for our mentors.

Find a JavaScript mentor
  • "Naz is an amazing person and a wonderful mentor. She is supportive and knowledgeable with extensive practical experience. Having been a manager at Netflix, she also knows a ton about working with teams at scale. Highly recommended."

  • "Brandon has been supporting me with a software engineering job hunt and has provided amazing value with his industry knowledge, tips unique to my situation and support as I prepared for my interviews and applications."

  • "Sandrina helped me improve as an engineer. Looking back, I took a huge step, beyond my expectations."