I have to admit I was skeptical at first, the book has a deceptively lighthearted cover. Those cartoon Chess pieces and the simple title "Chess for Rookies" won me over though, and I'm glad they did.
The premise of the book is simple, teach you the basics of the game, Tactics, Strategy, and Openings.
While there are many books that cover those topics, what impressed me so much was the way this author accomplished these goals, by presenting progressively challenging puzzles and challenges.
For instance, in the Tactics section he explains a tactic, for example, Forks, then he proceeds to show 3-4 different Chess puzzles that require the knowledge gained from the lesson. The really nice part of this is that he adds a few lines of "hint" text and a difficulty rating (1-5). It was great fun to figure out a 4 or 5 puzzle, however often I had to settle with getting the 1 through 3 puzzles right and getting close on the 4s and 5s. He also was thoughtful enough to include the answers to the puzzles in the back of the book, which while a pain to flip to, also meant I was much more likely to try the puzzles without peaking at the solution.
Bottom line, it's a very well written introduction to Chess, you will learn a good bit more than you'd expect and you will have a good time doing it.