# The Little Schemer by Friedman and Felleisen

10 Hacker News commenters recommended The Little Schemer by Friedman and Felleisen and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a short, dialogue-driven way to learn recursion and think in Scheme, with the lambda calculus side of functional programming clicking into place for some readers.

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crafting-interpreters.md): 60 recommend
- [Clean Code by Robert C. Martin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clean-code.md): 31 recommend
- [The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pragmatic-programmer.md): 28 recommend
- [How to Design Programs by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-design-programs.md): 18 recommend
- [Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastering-emacs.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262560992?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780262560993) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Little Schemer by Friedman and Felleisen", https://hackerapproved.com/p/little-schemer/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).