Hi Marty,
Are you still working on that school project? If it is finished, how did it go?

I am not sure what you mean by 28x, do you want a chip with 28 IOs?
In the previous post on this thread several chips were recommended, if you can give some detail of the planned project we can help you choose a starter chip. But again, all of the ones recommended are good for starters and will also be good for more advanced projects in the future.

A good source for learning? When (if you do not have it yet) you get you copy of PIC BASIC, the manual has example code for all of the commands. There are more examples on MELABS web site, and I like www.rentron.com also.

Most of all, hang out on this forum and follow the questions and answers from others, some of the topics may not be clear at first, but sooner or later they will.