RomanG,
You can get a Kit of a L297/298 board at
www.stepperstuff.com
The Kit is mostly a referance design from the L297 app sheet.
This board is a companion kit for the book "Easy Step'n"
This book is great tutorial on Steppers. But if you want to follow the experiments you will have to be familiar with Pic Micro's and with PIC assembly Language.
If you want to get started in Pic Micros I would start off with the Book "Easy Microcontrol'n". You will find a link for this book on the stepperstuff.com site or at
www.sq-1.com.
Good Luck
Ed