Turtleback Books
Turtleback Books is a US brand of library-bound hardcover rebindings of children's paperbacks for schools, owned by Perfection Learning since 2019.
- Editions tracked
- 27
- First editions
- 25
- Books
- 27
- Years
- 1985 to 2018
About Turtleback Books
Turtleback Books is an American brand of prebound, library-bound hardcover editions of popular children's paperbacks, sold to schools and owned since 2019 by Perfection Learning of Logan, Iowa.
What the books are. A Turtleback edition is not an original publication: it is an existing paperback, usually from a popular children's series, given a reinforced library binding so that it lasts through heavy classroom and library use. Perfection Learning sells the range to classroom teachers and wholesale buyers, quoting more than 8,000 titles and a lifetime guarantee on the binding.
Ownership. In 2009 Publishers Weekly reported that the St Louis distributor Booksource had recently bought the commercial binding business of Topeka Bindery in Topeka, Kansas, which had traded as Tandem Library Books and Sagebrush Books. The deal brought about 75,000 ISBNs and the Turtleback Books name, which had lain dormant for some years, and Booksource set up a separate Turtleback division to revive it. Perfection Learning, an educational publisher founded in Logan in 1926, acquired Turtleback in 2019.
As a result, many children's series titles appear in book databases under the Turtleback name even though the text was first published elsewhere.
How to spot a Turtleback Books first edition
Turtleback editions are library rebindings of paperbacks first issued by other publishers, so a Turtleback copy is never the first edition of a book; collectors should look for the original publisher's edition instead.
AuthorsElisabetta Dami (4)Dana Simpson (2)V. C. Andrews (1)Katherine Applegate (1)Claire Belton (1)Stan Berenstain (1)Jeff Brown (1)Orson Scott Card (1)Jacqueline Davies (1)Ursula Hegi (1)
SeriesEnder's Saga
Published by Turtleback Books
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Turtleback Books first edition?
Turtleback editions are library rebindings of paperbacks first issued by other publishers, so a Turtleback copy is never the first edition of a book; collectors should look for the original publisher's edition instead.
How many Turtleback Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 27 editions published by Turtleback Books, 25 of them first editions, across 27 books.
Where these facts come from
- Booksource Finds Growth in School Library Markets, Publishers Weekly, 2009 (publishersweekly.com)
- Our History, Perfection Learning (perfectionlearning.com)
- Turtleback Books, Perfection Learning (perfectionlearning.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 19 October 2026.