Rating: 
Summary: Don't judge this book by its cover...
Review: It may lead you to believe after reading this book you'd have taught yourself JavaScript the quick and easy way. More likely you'll find you've picked up a tidbit or two, none of which isn't available for free on one of many JavaScript websites. The book doesn't even attempt to define the language, you merely copy the examples and hope for the best. A nice (sic) feature is the companion website. About 1/3 of the code samples give JavaScript errors. Your money will be better spent elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Disorganized Visual Guide, thank god for the website!
Review: I unfortunately recommended this book to my students because of the lack of other beginner books at the time. The visual organization of code stumped the entire class because its presentation was discontinuous. In addition, some of the code was not working with current technology and the cross-browser examples were not cross-browser, not to mention not cross-platform. The good news was that the book has all the code on a website with the images of the examples available for download and that saved the day. Had I known, I would have NOT bought the book and just used the website as a tutorial.
Rating:
Summary: An OK reference, but not a book for the java beginner
Review: One of the most important aspects of any new language, be it spoken, written, or software-based, is the syntax and usage rules. This book, while advertised for the beginner and intermediate, skips over this most crucial aspect of learning javascript and delves immediately into example programming. I was on my third chapter, still waiting for the detailed discussion of javascript syntax before I realized that the two or so odd pages in chapter one was all I was going to get. I have spent hours trying to decipher their example code because I do not understand the fundamental constructs of the objects, methods, and event handlers. I am learning javascript, but mostly due to my existing knowledge of C and C++, not because of any teaching from this book. Short of copying the example code verbatim, I think most beginner and intermediate users will find that they do not have the understanding of javascript in which to solve unique problems on their web pages. If an exact example is not in the book, they will be unable to use their knowledge of javascript to deduce a solution. I found this book very disappointing, especially after really enjoying this "visual" approach in Elizabeth Castro's HTML for the World Wide Web. Advanced javascript users will undoubtedly pick up clever programming ideas from this book, but if you are actually trying to LEARN this language, you will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: this is just fun
Review: I bought this book to learn java script fast but besides couple of examples how to play with pictures there is nothing in there. Do not make the same mistake! The only book from the same series that I like was HTML4.
Rating: 
Summary: Good primer, however you still need a good reference book.
Review: For the most part the book works well as a primer. Basically, instead of getting yourself one of those Teach Yourself books, you could use this one instead. Believe me, I have the teach yourself book, and this one is much better. It works like a "Cheat" book. Good for quickly referencing a script that you might be in need of. Also, it works well as a learn through examples. However, I have to emphasize that the book is very light on details, therefore you should complememnt it with a real reference book such as O'Reilly's or the JavaScript Bible. Please note that the book only claims to be a quickstart book, not a panacia.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not perfect
Review: If you have a small website and you are interested in adding some special effects or interactivity with Javascript, you may find this book very interesting. I have 2 small websites, and I found this book adequate for the small things I wanted to accomplish. However, if you are interested in getting heavy into Javascript and creating your own code, I would not recommend this book. It has a very poor reference section in the appendix, and does not explain things in a way that would teach you to be a real Javascript programmer. The book is only good enough to give you some code you can copy, and have a general idea of how it works. I noticed that this is somewhat typical of the Visual Quickstart series of books. They provide you with enough information to do certain tasks, but they do not get deep enough where you can have a lot of flexibility and creativity on your own.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is terrible for the VQS series. Although it has very useable and everday scripts in it, the authors really don't teach the javascript. They just show you a bunch of the functions together for you to copy and paste into your webpage. I suggest getting the O'Reilly book "Designing with Javascript" by Nick Heinle if you want to LEARN javascript.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: This book does not belong with the VQS series. It does not teach you javascript. It just shows you some, don't get me wrong, useful scripts, but it doesn't TEACH. When I read others' scripts, I don't understand some of the functions because they were not taught. I STRONGLY suggest not buying this book, but trying "Designing with Javascript" by o'reilley.
Rating:
Summary: Great Beginner's Book
Review: I found this to be an excellent book to go from Beginner to Intermediate level JavaScript. All topics are covered (some like "Storing Information in Frames" are a little choppy and hard to follow). I was able to use several of the examples in the book to enhance websites that I maintain, AND to move off of the unpopular VBScript allowing things to be more browser independent (i.e. Linux)! That made it a pretty good reference as well. Overall a good book for beginners.
Rating:
Summary: It's practically empty.
Review: The book is obviously written for Netscape, like so many other JavaScript books, neglecting the fact that more people use IE. There is code on almost every page that can be used without modification in your web pages to add functionality, which is the only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1. However, there is almost no explanation for how or why the code is written, and absolutely nothing to detail syntax, properties, or functions the code. After reading the entire book, a reader would still be left unable to write their own code.
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