Jump Start books provide you with a rapid and practical introduction to web development languages and technologies. Typically around 150 pages in length, they can be read in a weekend, giving you a solid grounding in the topic and the confidence to experiment on your own.

Do you remember your first educational toy? One of the first that many children get is the big, chunky puzzlefour to ten easy-to-grip pieces that fit into spaces on a board.

This is one of the first experiences a child has with matching shapes to corresponding spaces, helping them develop their shape recognition skills.

My wife thinks I was never given one of these puzzles. Every time I put the dishes away, the plastic food storage containers stump me. I end up trying to put medium containers into small containers and square containers into round ones. It's as if, in her words, I never got the proper training as a child. I pretend she's just joking, but maybe she's rightI really can't remember.

If you've purchased this little book, in terms of CSS knowledge, you're a lot like an infant with its first shapes puzzle. I hope to teach you as much as possible, as quickly as possible, about the fundamentals of CSS. And I hope later in life you'll look back and be thankful that you took the time to "learn your shapes."