Gecko Press Blog

This weekend, illustrator Tokerau Brown visited Wellington bookshops to sign copies of Paku Manu Ariki Whakatakapōkai. Unity Books Wellington and Good Books both hosted him.

To celebrate the release of Have You Seen Dinosaur?, author/illustrator David Barrow painted characters from the book in the window of Next Page Books in the United Kingdom.

Giselle Clarkson, author of The Observologist (released next month), is one of nine Aotearoa artists awarded a 2023 Arts Foundation Laureate.

Giselle received the Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award, awarded every two years to a children’s book illustrator.

We wanted to expose the children in the story to real hardships and dangers, the same ones faced by polar explorers in historical times. Some important themes were endurance, patience, the hope for survival and rescue.

By Anna Hoek-Sims of UBS Otago, Emerging Bookseller of the Year 2023

Kia ora!

I’ve been an avid reader and a bookaholic from a very young age.

This book is a true co-creation between my son Kerehi Grace, the illustrator Tokerau Brown, and me. Sometimes, as the book was being invented, Toki (Tokerau) would share a picture, and I’d get a shiver—a feeling that the picture contains life inside it, is itself alive.

Watching insects and looking for other tiny, interesting things genuinely is one of my favourite hobbies, and the content of The Observologist is all the stuff I talk about and point out when I’m walking with my nieces and nephews. Putting it all down in a book felt like a very logical thing to do.

By Mel Schuit of Let’s Talk Picture Books Mel Schuit is one of our favourite children’s book bloggers, especially for her “Let’s talk illustrators” interviews with children’s book illustrators, full of interesting questions about the process of bookmaking. This month, we are releasing our first leperello—Look by Gavin Bishop—so we are sharing Mel’s book list… Read more »

Éric Veillé was born in 1976 in Laval and studied at the Duperré School in Paris. While working as an artistic director in publishing, he decided one spring day to devote himself to writing and children’s book illustration. He has since released many books, as author and illustrator, including Encyclopedia of Grannies and My Pictures… Read more »

Up to 75% off!

We’re having an end of line sale—choose from curiously good Gecko Press favourites, including picture books, gift books and novels priced at $5 and $10.

But be quick, there’s limited stock! Once they’re gone, they’re gone.