If you're interested, I am in the process of writing a react ebook, and I'm trying to focus on being very simple and explaining every step along the way. In fact, the whole first half of the book doesn't use a server at all (it uses script tags like https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html).

If you (or anyone else) is interested, I'd be happy to give you the chapters as I finish them, and would love to hear any feedback you have about it. Just send me an email (in my profile).