In addition to Bostonian's comments above about solving mates, there are a number of things that an absolute novice should learn first. Examples include:

1. Establishing control of the center
2. The importance of castling
3. At least one opening

Every chess club will probably teach these concepts early as well. If not, you might be able to find a good book on this from Amazon (sorry, I don't have any specific book recommendations at this level).