I can't think of a better book for teaching Perl than "Learning Perl". It touches on all the major concepts, without overwhelming beginners with complete in-depth details (like "Programming Perl", which BTW is what it's for). I think "Learning Perl" is an excellent book to teach first time Perl learners - the pace will be comfortable and will allow you to spend time on some of the more confusing concepts(like regex's), and very importantly will not overwhelm beginners :-)) If you need a supplement, I would recommend "Effective Perl Programming" (also recommended below), *AND* give some thought to the "Perl Cookbook" which is an amazingly excellent reference book based on *what* you want to accomplish. HTH.