In the other forum there is a thread with resources for php tutorials, however I have not checked the list out so I am not sure if they are good or not:

http://www.talkfreelance.com/showthread.php?t=19

As far as books go there is a Sams Teach Your Self in 24 Hours book that is very easy to follow and I found very good to grasp the basics that are needed (and it goes into some slightly more advanced stuff later in the book). It also goes through mysql connectivity so you may find that useful to.

Once you have grasped the basics set yourself a project and try coding it. I think the first thing I coded was a little news script and members login. Allthough the members login was just using php's in built sessions and the whole script was really basic it was a good project to start out on. After that you can try other things.