Orchard Books
Orchard Books is a children's imprint founded in 1986 under Grolier; since 2000 the UK list belongs to Hachette Children's Group and the US list to Scholastic.
- Editions tracked
- 103
- First editions
- 71
- Books
- 99
- Years
- 1987 to 2016
Orchard Books is a publisher active from 1987. We track 103 editions it published between 1987 and 2016, 71 of them first editions across 99 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.
About Orchard Books
Orchard Books is a children's publishing name launched by the Grolier group in 1986; since 2000 it has existed as two separate imprints: Orchard Books in the UK (Hachette Children's Group) and Orchard Books in the US (Scholastic).
In Britain, Orchard started in 1986 as the trade arm of the Watts Group, part of Grolier, with nine launch titles. Its founding publisher, Judith Elliott, came from Heinemann and ran the list for its first six years, discovering illustrators such as Jane Ray and James Mayhew; Ray's The Story of Creation won a Smarties award in 1992. By 1996 the list had passed 300 hardbacks. In the US, the editor Richard Jackson moved to Orchard in 1986 and ran his own imprint there, Richard Jackson Books, until 1996.
The French group Hachette owned Grolier from 1988. When Scholastic bought Grolier in 2000, it took the American Orchard list, while Hachette kept the British company, now an imprint of Hachette Children's Group. The UK Orchard publishes the Rainbow Magic and Beast Quest series (the first Beast Quest title appeared in 2007) and authors including Lauren Child, Cressida Cowell and Anthony Horowitz.
We have not yet written the guide to Orchard Books's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Orchard Books marked its firsts? Tell us.
Authors
Published by Orchard Books
Frequently asked questions
How many Orchard Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 103 editions published by Orchard Books, 71 of them first editions, across 99 books.
Where these facts come from
- Grolier, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- A Blooming Good Read: Ten Years of Orchard Books, Books for Keeps, 1996 (booksforkeeps.co.uk)
- Obituary: Richard Jackson, Publishers Weekly, 2019 (publishersweekly.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.