I will review my 3 hours with some lightweight beginner friendly book — “Learning React” by Kirupa Chinnathambi.
My Background
I am a senior computer science student and I was Frontend Engineer Intern last summer and coded mapping platform functions on ReactJs and Redux. However, since then my hands did not code any single line of code on ReactJs.
Thus, I was searching for beginner friendly book to recall some basic knowledge about ReactJs such as SPA, properties, states, components, events, lifecycles and etc. I did not search for this book on GoodReads, but somehow I found it on the Amazon.
Author
I do not search about authors that much when reading technical books. However, after some googling I found that author has personal website, where he writes interesting posts about frontend development with some good animations. Also, author is active on Twitter, Instagram and other social networks, where I have found that he works as PM at Firebase.
But I did not found any information how author define his pronouns. Therefore, I am sorry if I used it improperly.
Audience
Firstly, author skips the preface where usually information about prior knowledge and the intended audience is included. But I just risked and red the whole book.
Well, after reading the book I can say that readers need to know some JavaScript knowledge including objects and inheritance. Also, readers need to know CSS/HTML and web development principles. I guess it sounds like natural requirements for learning ReactJs. Sounds reasonable, yes?
So, we can say that book is beginner friendly.
However, some code examples in the book had bugs. Really, I was frustrated, when my code did not run for the first time. It took me some time to fix. Definitely, not beginner friendly in this sense.
Writing Style
The author really explains the concepts well. The structure of the book is organized so well that I could read the book with practice in 3 hours without any boredom. Here are my outlines:
Advantages
- Chapters are small, mainly with code examples and their explanations
- Colorful illustrations and diagrams for explaining concepts worked for me too.
- Each chapter builds on the previous ones, making it easy to follow.
- Writing style of author feels like a conversation because he uses some informal speech, jokes, smileys :]. The book did not felt as a technical writing, but more like a lesson from a friend.
Disadvantages
- The book do not go into details when explaining concepts. If you have never coded on ReactJs or coded once in your life, then this book is for you. This book is just for simple introduction of ReactJs.
- Sometimes the writing seemed to me too verbose. Maybe I am used to more technical books. Somehow, it is an advantage as I have said before (friendly conversation like writing) and disadvantage because in some chapters I found myself just skipping some sections.
- Bugs in the codes.
Do I recommend this book?
I do recommend it for people who is familiar with JavaScript and Web Development tools, but never used ReactJs.
But if you are person like me, who wanted to recall some concepts of ReactJs and maybe deepen the knowledge, you can skip this book.
p.s. In total I will rate this book solid 4 stars.
