The Best Books to Learn React in 2023

Though there are more choices than ever, React remains the king of web frontend development frameworks and there's never been a better time to start learn it.  We've compiled a list of 5 books that address different aspects of React development and can help you become a React master in 2023.

When choosing a resource on learning React, it's important to get one that's up to date.  React has changed a lot over the years, so be sure to pick one that teaches  React 18 and addresses the latest techniques: functional components, hooks, error boundaries, etc.

Our list of React books features several high-quality, up-to-date resources for learning React and related technologies.  While all of these books cover some React basics, they each also address React development from a slightly different angle, covering various advanced techniques as well, such as React Native development, backend integrations, etc.

Without further ado, here are our favorite books you can use to learn React in 2023!

Learning the Basics

If you're not at all familiar with React or relatively new to programming in general, we recommend React: Up & Running: Building Web Applications.  This book covers all of the basics of React app development: JSX, tooling, basic hooks, basic state management, and much more.

The book does assume a bit of JavaScript knowledge, so be sure to brush up on your JavaScript before starting with this (though to be honest, one of the best ways to improve your JavaScript is to simply dive in).

Learn Common Patterns, Tools & Techniques

Once you've learned the fundamentals of React and start building an application, you'll almost certainly run into some bigger challenges: how do you manage state and server communication in a large application?  How do you handle authentication?  How do you test and debug applications?

The book React Cookbook: Recipes for Mastering the React Framework focuses on some of these common application development challenges and gives a cookbook for solving them.  While these kinds of application development challenges are not unique to React, there are most certainly patterns and tools that experienced React developers use to solve them–this book shows you how.

Master React Hooks

One of the biggest changes in the React ecosystem over the past several releases has been the migration to using functional components and hooks.  Understanding how hooks work is key to understanding the lifecycle of functional components as well as the philosophy behind modern React development.

While any up-to-date React resource will address the basics of hooks like useState and useEffect,  we recommend Learn React Hooks: Build and refactor modern React.js applications using Hooks for learning more advanced hook techniques and in particular for developers working with code containing older-style class components.  This book can help developers to adapt and refactor class components into modern functional components.

Go Full-Stack & Learn the Backend

If you're learning React because you're a full-stack kind of developer or if you're on a mission to build a particular application, you might want to learn frontend and backend development at the same time.  In that case, you'll benefit from a resource which addresses both, and shows how they work together.

The book Full-Stack Web Development with GraphQL and React: Taking React from frontend to full-stack with GraphQL and Apollo shows not only how to build a React frontend, but also a fully functional backend and how to make them work together.  This is a great resource which shows the "big picture" of full-stack web application development, not just a siloed frontend approach.z

Go Native and Build for Mobile & Beyond

If you already know some React but are looking to start building native mobile apps for iOS and Android, React Native is a great tool.  If you can build an app with React, you get started with React Native mobile apps in no time.

While React developers will have no problem getting started with the basics of React Native development, there are a number of more advanced topics you'll want to master to truly become a React Native developer such as native animations, build tools, CI, automation.  We recommend Professional React Native: Expert techniques and solutions for building high-quality, cross-platform, production-ready apps to learn about these techniques.

Learn React in 2023

No matter which approach you choose, these are some great resources for learning React in 2023.  In addition to these books, there are also some great free resources to help you learn.  Here are some places to get started!

• The React team's Intro to React tutorial
• The official React documentation
• More React articles on Blixtdev