If he is looking for a good instructional book, i suggest
"Photoshop 7/ ImageReady"
FOR THE WEB
Hands-On Training
It is written by Lynda Weinman and Jan Kabili. Kind of pricy at 50 bucks, but definetly helps you get every peny worth out of PS.
EDIT:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...lance&n=507846
Or, you can find tons of stuff on the web as well. just take a look at this post
http://www.techimo.com/forum/t14283.html