hi!!!
i'm newbie too and if you want to get started in hc08 microcontrollers, i recommend the mc68hc908jk1. its only 20 pins, cheap, easy to erase and reprogram.
if you want you can download from this same site the datasheet of this. in the monitor rom section or development support you can find some schematics of the external circuitry to program.
i have used this for 3 years and i'm sure that will help you.
the software is codewarrior (hc08 studio) you can download from this site too. the languaje is c or c++, and you can find some tutorials right here or in internet.
if you want to use something higher, you could choose other families, or try with mc68hc908gp32. is very similar to jk1, but it has some extra modules.
Good luck
pd (sorry, i'm not speak english usually, i'm colombian
)