How to alert using jQuery

Solution 1:

$(".overdue").each( function() {
    alert("Your book is overdue.");
});

Note that ".addClass()" works because addClass is a function defined on the jQuery object. You can't just plop any old function on the end of a selector and expect it to work.

Also, probably a bad idea to bombard the user with n popups (where n = the number of books overdue).

Perhaps use the size function:

alert( "You have " + $(".overdue").size() + " books overdue." );

Solution 2:

Don't do this, but this is how you would do it:

$(".overdue").each(function() { 
    alert("Your book is overdue"); 
});

The reason I say "don't do it" is because nothing is more annoying to users, in my opinion, than repeated pop-ups that cannot be stopped. Instead, just use the length property and let them know that "You have X books overdue".