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Do you even /need/ a backend though?

It would be much simpler if you keep it entirely client side, using something like Pretender (https://github.com/trek/pretender).

To persist data you'll want a backend. That's a fairly important piece of any application which is why I included it in the tutorial. You could ignore the Rails parts of the tutorial and create your own backend.

Persist across clients, maybe, but it's also possible to use localStorage to persist data on a single client.

You could also use something like Firebase as a datastore that could persist across multiple clients but also be implemented in javascript.

Maybe stub out the backend with an Express app? Express seems simple enough that even if you're not familiar with it, you can still understand what it's trying to do.

And you'd keep most of the code in javascript so new comers wouldn't get "culture shock" by having to learn completely new syntax. +1

Would you consider Parse/Firebase?