Dungeons & Dragons: A Young Adventurer's Guide Series

Written by Jim Zub with Stacy King and Andrew Wheeler, the books in the Young Adventurer's Guide series are about a quarter of the size of standard D&D source books and don't focus (at all) on specific game mechanics, such as damage, hit points, movement rate or the like. They do, however, have beautiful illustrations and colorful text that provide useful insight and relatable descriptions that help potential players visualize what these fantasy elements would be like if actually encountered.

I say potential players, because the two books of the series that I've read as of this writing seem to be the kind of thing that a player might gift to their little brother, sister or, perhaps not-yet-player friend... you're not going to pick up one of these books, by itself, and start playing a game. It doesn't have the instructions or game mechanics. What it does have is interesting material that could provide that spark of interest... that "what if" that might lead someone to want to go ahead and try playing a game with their friend(s) or checking out a demo at their local gaming shop.