Hi,
The book I learned java from that I thought was great (and that the people interested in learning programming on my team are using) is Headfirst Java (
http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Jav.../dp/0596009208)
I think it does a great job of not being a boring programming book that you have to push yourself through.
In terms of IDEs, my AP CS class used BlueJ as well (which quite frankly I didn't like too well). I ended up using netbeans in class. Netbeans is also the IDE that FRC uses, while it probably has a steeper learning curve than BlueJ using it at first avoids the dreaded IDE switch that your programming guys will have to endure when the season starts. I also think that it is more full featured and will acclimate your programmers better to IDEs that are used outside the educational world that BlueJ was designed for.
Oliver
PS These books are written for Java SE, whereas the robot uses Java ME which lacks a lot of conveniences, however some things are easy to re-implement, ex Lists