I got the Wrox.Beginning.JavaScript.3rd.Edition and wanted to start learning it from scratch, then my boss came along and said that why bother, learn jQuery.
Can I understand jQ
JQuery provides a good layer of abstraction for interacting with DOM elements. You can do a lot of interesting things with it quickly and easily. But there are probably many things that JQuery won't do for you. You'll need to use regular JavaScript for that.