Gecko Press Blog

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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Four days until our FREE Joy Cowley Gobbledegook event!

Featherston Booktown and Gecko Press are celebrating the joyous new anthology of much-loved poems and stories by Joy Cowley, The Gobbledegook Book, illustrated by Giselle Clarkson. Don’t miss this chance to hear Joy recite gobbledegook poems and stories. There will be books for sale with Mr Feathers Den, Joy and Giselle will be signing and a scrumptious… Read more »

Book list: Celebrating books published in te reo Māori

Hoihoi Turituri

In honour of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, we want to celebrate the increasing number of books being published in te reo Māori. We asked Lucy Ira Bailey (Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Mutunga, Taranaki), the senior bookseller at The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington, to curate a list for us. Find these books at a… Read more »

Julia featured as a ‘rebel CEO’ in September Kia Ora magazine

Julia has been featured as a rebel CEO, alongside Hamish Johnson of Flying Saucer and Anna Dean and Angela Meyer of Double Denim in Air New Zealand’s September issue of Kia Ora magazine. “Gecko Press works hard to stay true to its vision of publishing curiously good books from around the world – to actively publish books… Read more »

School Library Journal reviews Otto Goes North

Otto Goes North. A book for kids published by Gecko Press

Otto Goes North is reviewed in the School Library Journal in their September issue.

Book list: Children’s poetry

At Gecko Press, we’re big fans of poetry and nonsense rhymes. We’re excited about the upcoming launch of The Gobbledegook Book: A Joy Cowley Anthology, illustrated by Giselle Clarkson. So we wanted to share the joy of children’s poetry with you.

Otto Goes North: Q&A with Ulrika Kestere

Ulrika Kestere is a photographer, illustrator and graphic designer born in Latvia and now based in Lund, Sweden. Otto Goes North is her second book for children, released by Gecko Press in 2019.

Eirlys Hunter on RNZ

Eirlys Hunter is on RNZ talking about some of her favourite media.

In praise of not-sameness: cabbage and cake

Diversity is much talked about in terms of race, gender and so on, but there is another level that is also important: in the current English-language book market, there is much that is the same. Sameness can make us all feel safe, but in our reading business, safeness is the end.

For me, risk-taking and adventure are the heart of good publishing, good book buying (and selling) and good reading; these things all belong together.

Jump! gets a starred review in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly gave Jump! a starred review this week.

July competition winner: Travelling entertainment

The responses to our July competition proved that some forms of entertainment will never go out of style.

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