Treehouse inks a book deal, teaching coders one page at a time

Treehouse, the learn-to-code-online company run by Internet allstar Ryan Carson, has just announced a book deal with Wiley, the publisher-to-the-Internet-allstars.

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Carson’s company will be in league with such web pros as Brian Solis, Get Satisfaction co-founders Lane Becker and Thor Muller, and countless others. But the Treehouse line will focus solely on teaching HTML. CSS, and iOS programming.

Right now, Treehouse offers a strong curriculum of online video instruction for a reasonable price; however, Carson said in an email exchange with VentureBeat that the books would reach and teach to other kinds of learners, as well.

“A lot of students need various learning inputs,” he said. “Video works very well for most, but some of our students really respond to the written format. Our new book series will be a big help to those students.”

Each of Treehouse’s major areas of instruction, which include most of the basic web programming technologies, will be covered in initial, foundational volumes from Wiley. Each book will leave the reader with a decent understanding of how to build a website with the technology in question.

We asked Carson how the Treehouse books would compare to the myriad other coding manuals on the market, such as the famous (and famously dense) O’Reilly “animal” books.

“Treehouse Books will be the perfect compliment to our online curriculum,” said Carson. “Students can either buy a physical copy or a downloadable e-book. O’Reilly’s books are great but Treehouse books are designed to strengthen those who are learning with Treehouse.”

Treehouse’s books place a strong emphasis on real-world examples and on enhancing the student’s career options. You can order CSS3 Foundations and HTML5 Foundations online now and also at brick-and-mortar stores such as Barnes & Noble.

“This is another thing that sets us apart from our competitors: The credibility and trust that comes from being published by Wiley, one of the world’s largest and most respected publishers,” Ryan concluded in a lightly veiled jab at the likes of Codecademy, a code-instruction site that lets folks learn for free but doesn’t offer the same depth of instruction.

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Treehouse said an iOS6 book is in the works, and we can imagine that JavaScript and WordPress books will be on the way soon, too, to compliment the company’s instruction in those areas.

Top image courtesy of wavebreakmedia, Shutterstock