Kanji Look and Learn

Kanji Look and Learn covers 512 kanji from N5 through N3 using illustrations and mnemonic stories to help you remember each character's shape and meaning. It also includes around 3,500 vocabulary words built from those kanji, with key beginner words marked for priority study.
It's from the same team behind Genki, but designed to be standalone. It works well alongside Genki, though the kanji order and vocabulary don't match one-to-one (Japan Times publishes a comparison table showing where the kanji overlap). It pairs just as well with any other beginner textbook.
Unless you'd rather learn kanji digitally through apps like Anki or WaniKani, this is one of the strongest kanji textbooks available. The main downside is that it has no exercises at all. If you buy it, the companion workbook is essential. It adds sentence-level reading and writing practice for the kanji and vocabulary covered here.