Trigger child re-rendering in React.js

The problem here is that you’re storing state in this.props instead of this.state. Since this component is mutating items, items is state and should be stored in this.state. (Here’s a good article on props vs. state.) This solves your rendering problem, because when you update items you’ll call setState, which will automatically trigger a re-render.

Here’s what your component would look like using state instead of props:

var MyList = React.createClass({
    getInitialState: function() {
        return { items: this.props.initialItems };
    },

    toggleHighlight: function() {
        var newItems = this.state.items.map(function (item) {
            item.highlighted = !item.highlighted;
            return item;
        });

        this.setState({ items: newItems });
    },

    render: function() {
        return (
            <div>
                <button onClick={this.toggleHighlight}>Toggle highlight</button>
                { this.state.items.map(function(item) {
                    return <MyComponent key={item.id} text={item.text} 
                             highlighted={item.highlighted}/>;
                }) }
            </div>
        );    
    }
});

React.render( <MyList initialItems={initialItems}/>,
              document.getElementById('container') );

Note that I renamed the items prop to initialItems, because it makes it clear that MyList will mutate it. This is recommended by the documentation.

You can see the updated fiddle here: https://jsfiddle.net/kxrf5329/