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[(Build Your Own Website: A Comic Tale of HTML, CSS, Dragons, and Blogs)] [Author: Nate Cooper] published on
Build Your Own Website is a fun, illustrated introduction to the basics of creating a website. Join Kim and her little dog Tofu as she learns HTML, the language of web pages, and CSS, the language used to style web pages, from the Web Guru and Glinda, the Good Witch of CSS.Once she figures out the basics, Kim travels to WordPress City to build her first website, with Wendy, the WordPress Maven, at her side. They take control of WordPress themes, install useful plugins, and more.As you follow along, you’ll learn how –Use HTML tags–Make your site shine with CSS–Customize WordPress to fit your needs–Choose a company to host your site and get advice on picking a good domain nameThe patient, step-by-step advice you’ll find in Build Your Own Website will help you get your website up and running in no time. Stop dreaming of your perfect website and start making it!
Unknown Binding
First published October 22, 2013
14 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Nate Cooper
5 books121 followersNate Cooper has been building websites professionally since 1997. Since 2005, Nate has been dedicated to the WordPress platform and has operated as a part-time freelance web developer. In 2011, Nate formed his company, now called Simple Labs, which focuses on web development and web presence and has established himself as a trusted expert within the WordPress community. Through Simple Labs, Nate works with companies large and small to customize and optimize their websites. Nate is "deeply embedded in the New York tech scene, giving practical and insightful advice..." Forbes 2012.
His book Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress from No Starch Press has been a bestseller in Programming: CSS books on Amazon.com.
His book Build Your Own Website: A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress from No Starch Press has been a bestseller in Programming: CSS books on Amazon.com.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 7, 2015
It was a helpful book, especially for someone who has only coded a few times several years ago for school. I like how most of the book focused on Wordpress since I think most people will use that to make websites. The comics were kind of cheesy but it was still a great book.
February 12, 2015
My daughter and I are exploring a lot of titles at the moment, and one that caught my eye was "Build Your Own Website", primarily because it promised to be "A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress", and that indeed it is.
I should probably mention that by "a comic guide", it does not mean in the funny sense (though some of it is), but in the illustrated, graphic novel sense. For those familiar with NoStarch Press and their "The Manga Guide to..." series of books, Nate Cooper's writing and Kim Gee's artwork fits very well in that space. What's more, "Build Your Own Website" follows the same template that "The Manga Guide to..." books do, in that each section starts with an illustrated graphic novel treatment of topics, and then follows on with a more in depth prose treatment of each area.
So what's in store for the reader who wants to start on a mission to make their own site from scratch?
Chapter 1 starts with our protagonist Kim looking forward to her first web design class, and shows that inspired and excited first timer's desire to get in and do something. It's followed by an explanation of the tools needed to be downloaded and do the work necessary to complete the examples in the book. All of the exercises and examples can be done for free, all you need is a web browser or two, a text editor, an ftp client (the book recommends FileZilla; it's the one I use as well) and you can get a free WordPress account at http://www.wordpress.com.
Chapter 2 talks about The Trouble with HTML, and how Kim and her dog Tofu meet up with the Web Guru, who introduces them to the basics of HTML, paths and naming conventions, loading pictures and following links, the hierarchy of files and directories that make up a basic web site, and a dragon called "404". The second section goes into details about all of these including explaining about document structure, HEAD and BODY tags, the items that go in each, embedding images, and a basic breakdown of the most common HTML tags.
Chapter 3 shows us how Kim Makes Things Look Great with CSS. Well, Glinda, the Good Witch of CSS helps Kim do that (graphic novel for kids, gang. Work with me, here ;) ). Glinda shows Kim the basics of CSS including classes and IDs, inline styles and external stylesheets that can be referenced along with inline styles, effectively creating a "cascade of styles" (CSS == "Cascading Style Sheets"). The chapter also discusses using div's for creating separate sections and blocks that CSS can be applied to, and ends with commonly used CSS properties.
Chapter 4 is where Kim Arrives in WordPress City, and where the examples focus on, of course, WordPress as a composition platform. Kim gets introduced to what WordPress is, which is a Content Management System (CMS), and the conventions of creating both blogs and websites. Kim is introduced to the Dashboard, creating posts, using the Visual editor, structuring her site, using Categories and Tags, using the Media Library to store media items, and the overall Theme to be used for the site. Each of these is covered in greater detail with examples in the second prose part.
Chapter 5 takes us to Customizing WordPress, and the myriad options that Kim can use to make her site look the way she wants it to. She is introduced to the Appearance panel, the difference between free and premium Themes, plugins such as Buy buttons or sharing posts on social media, Widgets that perform special functions that can be replicated for sections or each page, changing the navigation options to get to your pages quickly, and how each of the elements of WordPress are built on HTML and CSS (as well as things like JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, etc.).
Chapter 6 brings us to The Big Launch, where Kim and Tofu navigate the realities of hosting the site and how to set up hosting so that they can display their finished site to the world. There's lots of options, and most cost some money, but not very much (plans ranging from $5-$10 a month are readily available). Registering a domain is covered, and many sites have an option to install WordPress and use it there.
Bottom Line:
"Build Your Own Website" starts with some basic HTML and CSS, and then spends the bulk of the second half of the book introducing you, the user, to WordPress. For those looking to see the nuts and bolts of making a web site from scratch, including making the navigation elements, more involved interactions, and other esoteric features of web sites outside of the CMS system that WordPress provides, you will be disappointed. Having said that, if the goal is to get a site up and running and using a well designed and quick to use interface, WordPress is a pretty good system, with lots of flexibility and ways to make the basic formatting of a site nearly automatic. Younger web development acolytes can get in and feel what it's like to design and manage a site. To that end, "Build Your Own Website" does a very good job, and does it in an entertaining and engaging manner.
I would recommend this as a good companion book with "Lauren Ipsum", so as to give some high level computer science interaction. Both books also show that young programmers can get in, see what is happening, and become curious as to what comes next. From there, focusing on books that deal with JavaScript or frameworks for setting up sites will be less of a jump, because we can look back at WordPress and its CMS and say "oh yeah, that looks familiar". "Build Your Own Website" sets up a nice foundation, and makes a good jumping off point for those further explorations.
I should probably mention that by "a comic guide", it does not mean in the funny sense (though some of it is), but in the illustrated, graphic novel sense. For those familiar with NoStarch Press and their "The Manga Guide to..." series of books, Nate Cooper's writing and Kim Gee's artwork fits very well in that space. What's more, "Build Your Own Website" follows the same template that "The Manga Guide to..." books do, in that each section starts with an illustrated graphic novel treatment of topics, and then follows on with a more in depth prose treatment of each area.
So what's in store for the reader who wants to start on a mission to make their own site from scratch?
Chapter 1 starts with our protagonist Kim looking forward to her first web design class, and shows that inspired and excited first timer's desire to get in and do something. It's followed by an explanation of the tools needed to be downloaded and do the work necessary to complete the examples in the book. All of the exercises and examples can be done for free, all you need is a web browser or two, a text editor, an ftp client (the book recommends FileZilla; it's the one I use as well) and you can get a free WordPress account at http://www.wordpress.com.
Chapter 2 talks about The Trouble with HTML, and how Kim and her dog Tofu meet up with the Web Guru, who introduces them to the basics of HTML, paths and naming conventions, loading pictures and following links, the hierarchy of files and directories that make up a basic web site, and a dragon called "404". The second section goes into details about all of these including explaining about document structure, HEAD and BODY tags, the items that go in each, embedding images, and a basic breakdown of the most common HTML tags.
Chapter 3 shows us how Kim Makes Things Look Great with CSS. Well, Glinda, the Good Witch of CSS helps Kim do that (graphic novel for kids, gang. Work with me, here ;) ). Glinda shows Kim the basics of CSS including classes and IDs, inline styles and external stylesheets that can be referenced along with inline styles, effectively creating a "cascade of styles" (CSS == "Cascading Style Sheets"). The chapter also discusses using div's for creating separate sections and blocks that CSS can be applied to, and ends with commonly used CSS properties.
Chapter 4 is where Kim Arrives in WordPress City, and where the examples focus on, of course, WordPress as a composition platform. Kim gets introduced to what WordPress is, which is a Content Management System (CMS), and the conventions of creating both blogs and websites. Kim is introduced to the Dashboard, creating posts, using the Visual editor, structuring her site, using Categories and Tags, using the Media Library to store media items, and the overall Theme to be used for the site. Each of these is covered in greater detail with examples in the second prose part.
Chapter 5 takes us to Customizing WordPress, and the myriad options that Kim can use to make her site look the way she wants it to. She is introduced to the Appearance panel, the difference between free and premium Themes, plugins such as Buy buttons or sharing posts on social media, Widgets that perform special functions that can be replicated for sections or each page, changing the navigation options to get to your pages quickly, and how each of the elements of WordPress are built on HTML and CSS (as well as things like JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, etc.).
Chapter 6 brings us to The Big Launch, where Kim and Tofu navigate the realities of hosting the site and how to set up hosting so that they can display their finished site to the world. There's lots of options, and most cost some money, but not very much (plans ranging from $5-$10 a month are readily available). Registering a domain is covered, and many sites have an option to install WordPress and use it there.
Bottom Line:
"Build Your Own Website" starts with some basic HTML and CSS, and then spends the bulk of the second half of the book introducing you, the user, to WordPress. For those looking to see the nuts and bolts of making a web site from scratch, including making the navigation elements, more involved interactions, and other esoteric features of web sites outside of the CMS system that WordPress provides, you will be disappointed. Having said that, if the goal is to get a site up and running and using a well designed and quick to use interface, WordPress is a pretty good system, with lots of flexibility and ways to make the basic formatting of a site nearly automatic. Younger web development acolytes can get in and feel what it's like to design and manage a site. To that end, "Build Your Own Website" does a very good job, and does it in an entertaining and engaging manner.
I would recommend this as a good companion book with "Lauren Ipsum", so as to give some high level computer science interaction. Both books also show that young programmers can get in, see what is happening, and become curious as to what comes next. From there, focusing on books that deal with JavaScript or frameworks for setting up sites will be less of a jump, because we can look back at WordPress and its CMS and say "oh yeah, that looks familiar". "Build Your Own Website" sets up a nice foundation, and makes a good jumping off point for those further explorations.
March 9, 2015
This book came up while I was looking for WordPress books. I couldn't pass up a comic guide. For me, it was a great refresher on HTML and CSS and I think it'd be a really good intro for most people. The mix of comics, text, and exercises allow you to dive in as deep as you need and concepts are explained both in the comics and the followup text.
I didn't do the exercises so this was a quick read.
I didn't do the exercises so this was a quick read.
September 20, 2020
Great book for kids
December 5, 2014
This book is aimed at anyone who wants to build their own website but has no experience or knowledge of how to do it.
It is not often that the illustrator of a text book is mentioned on the cover but this is not the usual sort of text book. The subtitle is ‘A comic guide to HTML, CSS and Wordpress’: comic in the sense of comic strip rather than a bundle of laughs.
Kim and her dog Tofu learn web design from the web guru and the good witch. It is a great way to present the material in a humorous and memorable way.
The more conventional text follows in each section. It is designed for the reader to work through practical exercises on their own computer and build simple web pages using HTML and CSS; requiring only a text editor and a web browser to do so.
The subsequent exercises require the reader to have access to WORDPRESS in order to carry them out. Tips on how this can be acquired are given. There are also tips on hosting websites. The exercises are easy to follow and do what they say they do.
While you would not be building a website by the end of the book, you will have the basics and enough tips for further progress in order to achieve that objective.
An excellent book.
Reviewed by Sheila Bullas MBCS CITP
It is not often that the illustrator of a text book is mentioned on the cover but this is not the usual sort of text book. The subtitle is ‘A comic guide to HTML, CSS and Wordpress’: comic in the sense of comic strip rather than a bundle of laughs.
Kim and her dog Tofu learn web design from the web guru and the good witch. It is a great way to present the material in a humorous and memorable way.
The more conventional text follows in each section. It is designed for the reader to work through practical exercises on their own computer and build simple web pages using HTML and CSS; requiring only a text editor and a web browser to do so.
The subsequent exercises require the reader to have access to WORDPRESS in order to carry them out. Tips on how this can be acquired are given. There are also tips on hosting websites. The exercises are easy to follow and do what they say they do.
While you would not be building a website by the end of the book, you will have the basics and enough tips for further progress in order to achieve that objective.
An excellent book.
Reviewed by Sheila Bullas MBCS CITP
August 15, 2015
This book teaches the basics of HTML, CSS and WordPress through a comic book story following Kim, a web class student who wants to put her portfolio online. Each lesson starts with an illustrated section and ends with a detailed written summary to supplement the lesson. The comic book sections are a unique way to present the material, but the story and illustrations are just passably good. One particularly annoyance was illustrations where part of the code is cut off. The detailed written summaries are excellent, giving readers exact instructions and samples to test the code. There is a lot of great information here for the absolute beginner.
March 22, 2015
A wonderfully expressed, clearly written, guide to all the basics you or your child need to know to build a website; packed with clever illustrations and minimal technical jargon, the book walks the reader through the necessary steps to building websites. Recommended.
August 19, 2018
...very easy to read and fun . it makes html and css super easy, and also talks about wordpress too. ...he does all these with a comical view, for the average beginner who has no previous experience in web building to read and really enjoy.
February 12, 2015
My daughter and I are exploring a lot of titles at the moment, and one that caught my eye was "Build Your Own Website", primarily because it promised to be "A Comic Guide to HTML, CSS and WordPress", and that indeed it is.
I should probably mention that by "a comic guide", it does not mean in the funny sense (though some of it is), but in the illustrated, graphic novel sense. For those familiar with NoStarch Press and their "The Manga Guide to..." series of books, Nate Cooper's writing and Kim Gee's artwork fits very well in that space. What's more, "Build Your Own Website" follows the same template that "The Manga Guide to..." books do, in that each section starts with an illustrated graphic novel treatment of topics, and then follows on with a more in depth prose treatment of each area.
So what's in store for the reader who wants to start on a mission to make their own site from scratch?
Chapter 1 starts with our protagonist Kim looking forward to her first web design class, and shows that inspired and excited first timer's desire to get in and do something. It's followed by an explanation of the tools needed to be downloaded and do the work necessary to complete the examples in the book. All of the exercises and examples can be done for free, all you need is a web browser or two, a text editor, an ftp client (the book recommends FileZilla; it's the one I use as well) and you can get a free WordPress account at http://www.wordpress.com.
Chapter 2 talks about The Trouble with HTML, and how Kim and her dog Tofu meet up with the Web Guru, who introduces them to the basics of HTML, paths and naming conventions, loading pictures and following links, the hierarchy of files and directories that make up a basic web site, and a dragon called "404". The second section goes into details about all of these including explaining about document structure, HEAD and BODY tags, the items that go in each, embedding images, and a basic breakdown of the most common HTML tags.
Chapter 3 shows us how Kim Makes Things Look Great with CSS. Well, Glinda, the Good Witch of CSS helps Kim do that (graphic novel for kids, gang. Work with me, here ;) ). Glinda shows Kim the basics of CSS including classes and IDs, inline styles and external stylesheets that can be referenced along with inline styles, effectively creating a "cascade of styles" (CSS == "Cascading Style Sheets"). The chapter also discusses using div's for creating separate sections and blocks that CSS can be applied to, and ends with commonly used CSS properties.
Chapter 4 is where Kim Arrives in WordPress City, and where the examples focus on, of course, WordPress as a composition platform. Kim gets introduced to what WordPress is, which is a Content Management System (CMS), and the conventions of creating both blogs and websites. Kim is introduced to the Dashboard, creating posts, using the Visual editor, structuring her site, using Categories and Tags, using the Media Library to store media items, and the overall Theme to be used for the site. Each of these is covered in greater detail with examples in the second prose part.
Chapter 5 takes us to Customizing WordPress, and the myriad options that Kim can use to make her site look the way she wants it to. She is introduced to the Appearance panel, the difference between free and premium Themes, plugins such as Buy buttons or sharing posts on social media, Widgets that perform special functions that can be replicated for sections or each page, changing the navigation options to get to your pages quickly, and how each of the elements of WordPress are built on HTML and CSS (as well as things like JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, etc.).
Chapter 6 brings us to The Big Launch, where Kim and Tofu navigate the realities of hosting the site and how to set up hosting so that they can display their finished site to the world. There's lots of options, and most cost some money, but not very much (plans ranging from $5-$10 a month are readily available). Registering a domain is covered, and many sites have an option to install WordPress and use it there.
Bottom Line:
"Build Your Own Website" starts with some basic HTML and CSS, and then spends the bulk of the second half of the book introducing you, the user, to WordPress. For those looking to see the nuts and bolts of making a web site from scratch, including making the navigation elements, more involved interactions, and other esoteric features of web sites outside of the CMS system that WordPress provides, you will be disappointed. Having said that, if the goal is to get a site up and running and using a well designed and quick to use interface, WordPress is a pretty good system, with lots of flexibility and ways to make the basic formatting of a site nearly automatic. Younger web development acolytes can get in and feel what it's like to design and manage a site. To that end, "Build Your Own Website" does a very good job, and does it in an entertaining and engaging manner.
I would recommend this as a good companion book with "Lauren Ipsum", so as to give some high level computer science interaction. Both books also show that young programmers can get in, see what is happening, and become curious as to what comes next. From there, focusing on books that deal with JavaScript or frameworks for setting up sites will be less of a jump, because we can look back at WordPress and its CMS and say "oh yeah, that looks familiar". "Build Your Own Website" sets up a nice foundation, and makes a good jumping off point for those further explorations.
I should probably mention that by "a comic guide", it does not mean in the funny sense (though some of it is), but in the illustrated, graphic novel sense. For those familiar with NoStarch Press and their "The Manga Guide to..." series of books, Nate Cooper's writing and Kim Gee's artwork fits very well in that space. What's more, "Build Your Own Website" follows the same template that "The Manga Guide to..." books do, in that each section starts with an illustrated graphic novel treatment of topics, and then follows on with a more in depth prose treatment of each area.
So what's in store for the reader who wants to start on a mission to make their own site from scratch?
Chapter 1 starts with our protagonist Kim looking forward to her first web design class, and shows that inspired and excited first timer's desire to get in and do something. It's followed by an explanation of the tools needed to be downloaded and do the work necessary to complete the examples in the book. All of the exercises and examples can be done for free, all you need is a web browser or two, a text editor, an ftp client (the book recommends FileZilla; it's the one I use as well) and you can get a free WordPress account at http://www.wordpress.com.
Chapter 2 talks about The Trouble with HTML, and how Kim and her dog Tofu meet up with the Web Guru, who introduces them to the basics of HTML, paths and naming conventions, loading pictures and following links, the hierarchy of files and directories that make up a basic web site, and a dragon called "404". The second section goes into details about all of these including explaining about document structure, HEAD and BODY tags, the items that go in each, embedding images, and a basic breakdown of the most common HTML tags.
Chapter 3 shows us how Kim Makes Things Look Great with CSS. Well, Glinda, the Good Witch of CSS helps Kim do that (graphic novel for kids, gang. Work with me, here ;) ). Glinda shows Kim the basics of CSS including classes and IDs, inline styles and external stylesheets that can be referenced along with inline styles, effectively creating a "cascade of styles" (CSS == "Cascading Style Sheets"). The chapter also discusses using div's for creating separate sections and blocks that CSS can be applied to, and ends with commonly used CSS properties.
Chapter 4 is where Kim Arrives in WordPress City, and where the examples focus on, of course, WordPress as a composition platform. Kim gets introduced to what WordPress is, which is a Content Management System (CMS), and the conventions of creating both blogs and websites. Kim is introduced to the Dashboard, creating posts, using the Visual editor, structuring her site, using Categories and Tags, using the Media Library to store media items, and the overall Theme to be used for the site. Each of these is covered in greater detail with examples in the second prose part.
Chapter 5 takes us to Customizing WordPress, and the myriad options that Kim can use to make her site look the way she wants it to. She is introduced to the Appearance panel, the difference between free and premium Themes, plugins such as Buy buttons or sharing posts on social media, Widgets that perform special functions that can be replicated for sections or each page, changing the navigation options to get to your pages quickly, and how each of the elements of WordPress are built on HTML and CSS (as well as things like JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, etc.).
Chapter 6 brings us to The Big Launch, where Kim and Tofu navigate the realities of hosting the site and how to set up hosting so that they can display their finished site to the world. There's lots of options, and most cost some money, but not very much (plans ranging from $5-$10 a month are readily available). Registering a domain is covered, and many sites have an option to install WordPress and use it there.
Bottom Line:
"Build Your Own Website" starts with some basic HTML and CSS, and then spends the bulk of the second half of the book introducing you, the user, to WordPress. For those looking to see the nuts and bolts of making a web site from scratch, including making the navigation elements, more involved interactions, and other esoteric features of web sites outside of the CMS system that WordPress provides, you will be disappointed. Having said that, if the goal is to get a site up and running and using a well designed and quick to use interface, WordPress is a pretty good system, with lots of flexibility and ways to make the basic formatting of a site nearly automatic. Younger web development acolytes can get in and feel what it's like to design and manage a site. To that end, "Build Your Own Website" does a very good job, and does it in an entertaining and engaging manner.
I would recommend this as a good companion book with "Lauren Ipsum", so as to give some high level computer science interaction. Both books also show that young programmers can get in, see what is happening, and become curious as to what comes next. From there, focusing on books that deal with JavaScript or frameworks for setting up sites will be less of a jump, because we can look back at WordPress and its CMS and say "oh yeah, that looks familiar". "Build Your Own Website" sets up a nice foundation, and makes a good jumping off point for those further explorations.
April 6, 2020
Good easy book, but I didn't finish it.
March 28, 2023
1. The book was published in 2013, it's kinda obsolete for now;
2. The comic is.... Too bad to evaluate. just skip the comic and see the summarization behind the comics
3. Have a nice day.
2. The comic is.... Too bad to evaluate. just skip the comic and see the summarization behind the comics
3. Have a nice day.
September 14, 2016
*Build Your Own Website* is a fun, beginner-friendly introduction to the basics of designing a website. This cartoon tale shows you how to get a site up and running using WordPress and your newfound knowledge of HTML and CSS.
As you follow the illustrated adventures of Kim and her dog, Tofu, you'll slay 404-error dragons and learn helpful tips from the Web Guru's HTML scrolls and Glinda, the Good Witch of CSS.
This book is a perfect starting point for that precocious kid eager to make their mark on the web, tech-phobic adults who need a non-threatening guide, or creative types who have lots of great design ideas, but get a little queasy at the sight of HTML. *Build Your Own Website* makes getting started with Web design easy and fun, and it will unlock the keys to the Internet for a host of eager beginners.
As you follow the illustrated adventures of Kim and her dog, Tofu, you'll slay 404-error dragons and learn helpful tips from the Web Guru's HTML scrolls and Glinda, the Good Witch of CSS.
This book is a perfect starting point for that precocious kid eager to make their mark on the web, tech-phobic adults who need a non-threatening guide, or creative types who have lots of great design ideas, but get a little queasy at the sight of HTML. *Build Your Own Website* makes getting started with Web design easy and fun, and it will unlock the keys to the Internet for a host of eager beginners.
September 2, 2016
Very much in the same style of the Manga guides, this books give an explanation of a concept through comics and then provides a data dump at the end of the chapter with more detailed information. I found the comic started getting in the way and started skipping/skimming to the end of the chapters. I'll keep this one in mind for my kids though.
September 20, 2015
At first glance this book provided a nice overview of web concepts and code. On further reflection, though, it seems like it maybe went a bit deeper into coding than necessary and relied too heavily on the textual interludes.
December 17, 2014
reviewed VOYA in which I gave it a 3Q2P. as to my own particular taste--it was okay. not really my type of book though.
September 9, 2015
A good introduction for absolute beginners, but very superficial.
April 5, 2017
I think this book is a great start for non-cs major on basic html and CSS. However, it focuses a little bit more on WordPress than the other two. Illustration was not impressive, and stories sometimes got carried away.
April 30, 2017
This is a good intro to coding for teens that will help them get a handle on using a text editor for the two markup languages HTML and CSS, as well WordPress, a CMS (Content Management System) that uses a visual editor -- making HTML, CSS, and PHP even more accessible, needing little more than "shortcode" to add widgets.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews