React In Action

Author: Mark Tielens Thomas.

Published by Manning, June 2018.

This book about the popular application framework React has 3 parts.

Part 1: Meet React

Part 2: Components and data in React

Part 3: React application architecture

Part 1 is a short and slow-paced introduction to the working concepts of React. I like this style where emphasis is on understanding rather than mechanical instruction. Not that there is a lack of instruction though. It is emphasized early on that React is mainly about the View part of an application.

Part 2 explains further concepts like data flow, rendering, life cycle methods, form handling, integration of 3rd party libraries, routing and testing.

Part 3 explains the Redux architecture, React Server and React Native.

Throughout the book, an example application is developed and refined, with clear explanations of how this is done. All in all, a highly readable introduction to the React framework.