Gecko Press Blog

What we really enjoy about these picture books/board-books is the casual inclusion of LGBTQIA+ folks. It’s wonderful to have books where queer characters are normalised within another narrative. We really wish there were more for us to choose from, especially from local publishers. It’s 2022 after all!

When I was a child, my best friend lived with about 15 people in a shared house, a big old villa. It had absolutely everything! There was a big garden with fruit trees, and a cosy treehouse.

When I created the character of Lionel, I tried to reconnect with the deep feelings of two- and three-year-olds, and I found myself confronting some contrasting and powerful emotions! It’s a very rich universe that you don’t always find in stories for toddlers, where things are often soft and kind.

The Asian Festival of Children’s Content based in Singapore runs from 26-29 May. This year’s festival theme is Lit Up! It includes sessions on inclusivity and diversity, mental wellness, the role of stories and books as a coping mechanism.
Gecko Press publisher Julia Marshall is chairing a session on translating change—one story at a time and will also be in the session on humour in children’s books.

Dr Mal Thompson is the journal convenor for the Forum NZ, a literacy-focused journal that the Otago Literacy Association is responsible for. Mal has held many roles including with the University of Otago Education College, secondary school English teacher, PhDPresident of OLA, and also a trustee on Ignition Children’s Festival. This is her list of… Read more »

By Rachel Lawson, publisher at Gecko Press. When we translate a book into English from another language, one of the first questions for the translator is the names of the characters—and often that affects the title too.

“When I was eleven I used to pretend I was a boy a lot, and I was longing for love. All I wanted to do was to play-wrestle with my friend Michael. He had bleached hair and could play Nirvana songs on his guitar. But I was so tall and skinny it was hard to get boys interested. They liked the short and cute girls, not ones with cricket legs like me.”

There are so many excellent books about dinosaurs and fossils that it is very difficult to pick just a few to feature. Our scientific knowledge of extinct animals has increased exponentially as researchers continue to discover amazing fossils and use modern tools to gather insights about their lives.

By Catharina Valckx. My books can start with an idea, a word or an image. Ideas come into my mind, and sometimes I feel—Ah! Here’s one that interests me!

I discovered children’s literature in the form of picture books in the local library when my son was young. I knew a few good books from my childhood, but I didn’t imagine they would be just the tip of the iceberg. Some books were revelations!