How to alert using jQuery

$(".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." );