When I first started playing chess seriously, I found Yasser Seirawan's ***Play Winning Chess*** a nice introduction to the practical considerations of 
- Force (material)
- Time
- Space
- Pawn Structure

and the narrative, games, tips, puzzles, and quizzes explicitly targeting beginners. 

Seirawan's ***Winning Chess Strategies*** was a useful foray into basic strategy and helped me come up with plans and evaluate candidate moves better. Very useful chapters such as relevant to your question such as 
- Ch. 4: "Understanding Where the Pieces Go" 
- Ch. 5: "Superior Minor Pieces"
- Ch. 6: "How to Use Pawns"

again with easy to follow writing and lots of puzzles and quizzes.

[![Book covers for "Play Winning Chess" and "Winning Chess Strategies"][1]][1]

Of course, there are many other great resources.  I'm sure fellow answerers will come up with even better recommendations.  


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/hvRgr.png