On Wednesday 15th April, author and illustrator, Antje Damm, took over the Gecko Press Instagram account to give an insight into a day in her life. Take a look at what her day looked like…
Welcome to a combobulation of articles from our favourite thinkers, stories from behind the scenes, lists of good books, Gecko Press news and things that amuse us from time to time.
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A day in the life of a primary school librarian
As a primary school librarian, you need to be prepared for everything, especially the unexpected. And you have to be very patient and flexible. It is difficult to describe a typical day, as no two days are the same, although there are always the staple ingredients of children and books.
Here’s how I spent my six hours of employment on a typical Wednesday before the lockdown.
Book list: Stories to open up discussions about traumatic events
This month’s book list is from Angela Crocombe, the manager at Readings Kids bookshop in Melbourne, who has selected books that can be read together or alone to open up discussion about death and the feeling of sadness.
They may be helpful right now or whenever a parent needs to talk about traumatic events with small children.
Hattie is The Times Children’s Book of the Week
Alex O’Connell has selected Hattie by Frida Nilsson as The Times Children’s Book of the Week. “Hattie is from the Pippi Longstocking school of clever, anti-establishment little girls who have the capacity for misrule until their conscience kicks in, their hearts turn to fondant and they return to the path of righteousness (while avoiding piety)… Read more »
Gecko Press guidelines for online storytimes
Gecko Press and Walker Books Australia want to encourage reading and classroom read-aloud experiences, and to support schools and public libraries dealing with the escalating COVID-19 outbreak. If you are a teacher, librarian or bookseller moving your storytimes or read-alouds online and wish to share Gecko Press titles, please do not hesitate to get in… Read more »
Gecko Press webstore to temporarily close
The Gecko Press online store will be temporarily closing from the 24th of March 2020 as our staff will be working from home and will not have access to our stock room. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and cannot wait to reopen once it is safe and advisable for us to… Read more »
Julie Danielson reviews Tell Me
Julie Danielson has reviewed Tell Me for her blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast: I read just this morning about a well-reviewed book about sex, aimed at children and written by a sex educator, causing all kinds of controversy at a Massachusetts school. To be clear, I haven’t read that particular book, but generally speaking these… Read more »
Hattie: Hello from Frida Nilsson
Frida Nilsson is one of Sweden’s most talented children’s book authors. Her writing is characterised by playfulness, humour and sincerity, and has been compared to the work of Roald Dahl and Barbro Lindgren. Frida has received numerous Swedish and international prizes, including the James Krüss Award for International Children’s Literature, the August Prize, the German Youth Literature Prize and the Astrid Lindgren Prize.
Frida is the author of The Ice Sea Pirates (2017) and Hattie (out March 2020).
Wed 4 March: Reimagining Classics at The Children’s Bookshop
Join illustrators Giselle Clarkson, Kieran Rynhart and Kimberly Andrews for a curiously good evening at The Children’s Bookshop. They will talk about how they approached reillustrating the work and characters of iconic writers, from creating a new Greedy Cat to rethinking James K. Baxter’s Tree House poems. Bookings are essential for seating RSVP books@thechildrensbookshop.co.nz
Book list: Reimagined classics
On Wednesday 4th March, The Children’s Bookshop in Kilbirnie will be hosting illustrators Giselle Clarkson, Kieran Rynhart and Kimberly Andrews, to discuss how they approached reillustrating the work and characters of iconic writers.
