The reason you're not going to find apt in redhat books is that redhat doesn't come with apt, it's a third party ad-on.
Except in the case of slackware, tar isn't a package - it's just a way of compressing files into an archive - the linux books I've read tend to have brief sections on compiling source code, which appears to be what you mean.
I'd recommend the book RUTE, it's freely available on the web (in html and ps formats IIRC) and you can also buy a hardcopy if you feel the need.