Gecko Press Blog

For Halloween, our readers told us about some of their favourite spooky, scary books. And we got some bonus scary stories too! Kathryn likes Nick Sharratt’s What’s in the Witch’s Kitchen?  Sonia’s favourite was the classic The Witches by Roald Dahl. Kate tells us that Sammy’s favourite is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice… Read more »

In November, we are releasing Tell Me, a book full of answers to real questions from 8-year-olds, covering what they really want to know about bodies, sex and emotions. Ella Sharpe, manager of the Younger Sun Bookshop in Yarraville, Australia has provided us with a great list of other popular books on this topic.

Monkey on the Run, by award-winning Belgian picture book author-illustrator Leo Timmers, has been selected for the New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2019.

This month, we have a list of fantastic fiction with a strong female lead for middle readers, curated by Ella Sharpe from the Younger Sun Bookshop in Yarraville, Australia.

We all know that books for young people are important. Except that some people seem to think that picture books are just an optional extra. They’re for toddlers to chew on – sometimes literally – until they get down to real reading. I still remember a fellow teacher who brought his classes into the school library to borrow books, shouting his final instruction, ‘Nothing with pictures. No pictures.’

Our readers have been busy this month, creating entries for our September competition.

Just in time for Halloween, we have a new adventure from Clotilde Perrin, author of Inside the Villains. The House of Madame M is a thrilling, spooky work of paper-engineering and imagination. Anna Low from Potts Point Bookshop in Elizabeth Bay, Australia has sent us a round-up of her favourite interactive and lift-the-flap books. There… Read more »

Giselle Clarkson is a freelance illustrator and comic artist, and the illustrator of The Gobbledegook Book. She illustrated Secret World of Butterflies (2017) and is best known for her illustrations for conservation and environmental projects, and of biscuits—Common Household Biscuits & Slices of New Zealand was a viral hit. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Nora Brech was born in 1988 and lives in Oslo, Norway. She works as an illustrator and has a degree in drawing. Cornelia and the Jungle Machine is her first book as both author and illustrator.

Reading a story is one of the most exciting things you can do. It requires a great deal of curiosity and a little bit of courage. As you open a book and turn the first page, you have to take a breath, open your heart and be willing to listen.