Gecko Press Blog

For Women in Translation month we asked Swedish writer Frida Nilsson about the translation process. Nilsson’s new book released in English is Hattie and Olaf, one of over a dozen novels she has written for children which have been published around the world. The Ice Sea Pirates, her most translated book, is available in 20… Read more »

With the approach of Father’s Day and this month’s release of Seahorses Are Sold Out, featuring the best dad-hair Gecko Press has published, we asked Helen Wadsworth from Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop in Auckland to tell us what books about single fathers she enjoys recommending to customers.             Picture books Just Because… Read more »

Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s best-loved writers for children and adults, with an international reputation. She has won a multitude of awards and honours for her bestselling books, including the Prime Minister’s Award for contribution to literature. She was shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2018.         What… Read more »

Frida Nilsson shares the inspiration behind her much-loved character Hattie and memories of her own school days for the publication of Hattie and Olaf.

Sarah is our newest member of Gecko Press, having joined our marketing team this month. Sarah has fond memories of reading with multiple generations of her family growing up in the 1980s in the UK. Here are some of the classic picture books and 80s bestsellers that raised her.  When I was young, I had… Read more »

This month’s book list has been collated by Bob Lingle from Off the Beaten Path Bookstore. The store is located in the Village of Lakewood, New York, with a focus on fostering empathy, to curate titles for the community that promote understanding, diversity, and creativity. Find Off the Beaten Path Bookstore on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter…. Read more »

by rachel lawson There’s a bookshelf behind Julia’s desk at Gecko Press that miraculously houses examples of whatever we need whenever we need it. These are books we have loved but never published in English, for one reason or another. Julia often reaches in, mid conversation, to pull out exactly the book we need to… Read more »

Reading books from around the world expands our thinking. Yet international titles make up only a small percentage of books on the shelves of children…

Currently, my mind-expanding travels take place on the pages of a different type of passport — the picture book. Here, both pictures and words offer a chance to travel without a plane ticket, to a new world, be it real or imagined. A picture book offers a round trip to the imagination, and these days, that’s my dream destination.

For our new series, The Books that Raised Me, we talked to the School Library Association of New Zealand to discover the books that raised the librarians of SLANZA.