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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Duck, Death and the Tulip BBC 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time

Duck Death and the Tulip

Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch has been voted one of the 100 greatest children’s books of all time.

Duck, Death and the Tulip was number 26 on the list and one of only 14 books included that were published this century.

The Moon Is a Ball featured in New York Times

The Moon Is a Ball cover

The Moon Is a Ball by Ed Franck and Thé Tjong-Khing has been featured in a recent article in The New York Times titled ‘It Takes Two: Friendship in Three New Books for Early Readers’.

It is described as having “captivating text, ideal for reading aloud.”

Any Body: Q&A with Katharina von der Gathen & Anke Kuhl

Anke Kuhl and Katharina von der Gathen

I think pre-pubescent children should marvel at how amazing their bodies are. In the book, I wanted to focus on this great body-home that we live in, that we sense the world with and that is always changing in mysterious ways.

Admirable mothers in picture books

For Mother’s Day, we are noticing books that demonstrate good parenting—often without the child realising. The Poo Bum series is one.

Book list: Puberty and bodies

Image of children lined up from Any Body

By Robyn Fausett, CEO at Nest Consulting.

Here follows a list of books by some of my favourite authors for both kids and parents who are navigating the wonderful world of puberty!

Librarian review: Detective Gordon – A Case with a Bang

Dear Detective Gordon, and bright, sweet Buffy, you will be sorely missed.

This fifth and final in the Detective Gordon series written by Ulf Nilsson and illustrated by Gitte Spee has recently been released by Gecko Press, and it is a real gem.

Book list: Creative and imaginative play

We asked Chandra Littlewood from Moriah Kindergarten in Wellington for a list of books she likes to recommend that foster imaginative and creative play for pre-school age children.

The House that Jack Built in Aotearoa New Zealand schools

House That Jack Built 3 Gecko Press

This picture book tells the story of colonisation in Aotearoa for our tamariki and our rangatahi.  They can look at and see and feel–what happened here, what was the impact, what changed in Aotearoa from page one to the end of the book? This book is a huge asset as a launch pad for deeper learning for our students.

Free book offer during April

To add a little bouncy joy to your April, we’re offering a FREE book with every order from our website throughout the month.

Just add the code FREEGIFT at checkout.

We’ll select the most age appropriate free book based on your order.

An English version as entertaining and easy as the original

The Moon Is a Ball Dutch cover

My primary task as a translator was to reproduce the flow and fun of the stories, making the English versions as entertaining and easy to read as the originals. Of course I didn’t try to do this by simplifying Panda and Squirrel’s plans, but by taking slight liberties in the literal content to maintain clarity.

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