Gecko Press Blog

The image of the small girl and the big dinosaur, the idea that something could be so gigantic, struck my young mind. I still remember the feeling back then of my heart pounding fast. Since then, I have become addicted to reading about these worlds that are far away in time or space but real to me.

The books we read and remember as a child really do the heavy lifting of raising us as a reader.  These are some of the books that raised me.

Once the connection has been made, for it to stay alive, there need to be more books, more nudges from more people, and they need to be meaningful to what that particular child needs at that particular moment.

Catharina Valckx takes us to her studio in Amsterdam and shows us how she created the charming Lisette in Lisette’s Green Sock.

This book is completely autobiographical. It tells of my son’s first year and my first year of being a mother. It is a book I wrote so I wouldn’t forget that year and also to try to convey what I experienced when discovering motherhood.

The parallels with human diversity and the ways animals express their sexuality and behave sexually are astonishing.

Children who read this book can discover that the most wide-ranging forms of life and love are a natural part of the diverse life on Earth.

Translating rhyming texts is pretty hard, particularly when the text is so short and condensed. Of all the editions, James Brown’s versions deviate the most from the original text, but in a good way. They always surprise me, and I love it. He manages to capture the spirit of the text, while bringing his own imagination and poetry to it

Leo Timmers shares an insight into the work that went into making his latest book, Where Is The Dragon? From the first dummy and designing the characters to the execution of the final art and cover.

While I was making the book, I had the image of a small child playing in his room with a small basket, creating a wacky adventure with the random objects he comes across. So I wanted a little man with a suitcase—that simple!

The story emerged from these drawings. After struggling for months, I suddenly had the whole story finished in an hour. Pure magic, and very thrilling. You just never know which new idea is around the corner.