The Curiously Good Book Club
At Gecko Press, we believe that one good book can spark a lifetime love of reading.
We have built a digital and real-life community where people can share knowledge about great books for children (not just our books) and find creative ways to encourage children to love to read.
The Curiously Good Book Club takes books to places they are not normally found and works with anyone who wants to encourage a child to love to read. The Club brings together the entire book ecosystem – libraries, booksellers, schools, families, children.
If you want our help to organize an event, create a book club, or if you have ideas to promote children’s books and reading, please join the Club and share them with us.
The aim of the Curiously Good Book Club is simple – that every child loves to read.
Do you want to receive our monthly newsletter, Book Club members-only content, events invitations and special offers?
Book Club Blog: The art of the book fair
For Gecko Press, we are looking for what we call curiously good books — books of strong character and good heart, with stories that parents and children will want to read hundreds of times. We are looking for books we feel we haven’t seen before with a harmonious combination of picture and story that sets up an immense hum, larger than the sum of its parts.
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Complete the picture
Click on the image and download activity sheet.
Released this month: Nits!
Simon feels a new emotion stirring—he thinks he is in love with Lou! Sadly, Lou loves Mamadou… One day Lou comes to school with nits. She’s suddenly not so popular any more. Except with Simon. He doesn’t care about nits!
If you cant get to your bookshop,
buy here
Book List of the month: Favourite time-travel or fantasy junior adventure novels list by Barbara Else
With Barbara Else’s Harsu and the Werestoat release this month, we asked Barbara about her favourite time-travel books for middle-readers that Harsu’s fans could also enjoy. It is a great list of books worth checking at your favourite book store or library.
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To receive a reading journal, send us an email at [email protected] with ‘Book Club Reading Journal’ subject line and your home address. Currently available to New Zealand club members only.
Curiously Good Book Club
Reading Books with Babies by Elaine Reese
New parents hear advice about what’s best for their baby on a daily, even hourly basis. One popular piece of advice is “Read to your baby!” Yet no one ever seems to tell new parents how. It’s not easy to read to a baby, especially a newborn. I remember the first time I tried to… Read more »
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Book Lists, Curiously Good Book Club
Scary books loved by Team Wardini
At Gecko Press, we aren’t scared of scary books like Wolfy, Inside the Villains and The Yark. And keep your eyes open for another frightening treat coming later in 2019…
We asked the team at Wardini Books what they recommend to anyone who is ready for a good scare.
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Curiously Good Book Club
Why scary is good
Wolfy by Grégoire Solotareff is an enduring bestseller and a watershed in French illustration. It is a masterful picture book about a rabbit and a wolf who want to be best friends. A bestseller in France, it is known and loved by two generations of teachers, librarians, parents and children. For this new paperback edition Grégoire… Read more »
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Book Lists
Pigs in books
Pigs can’t fly. They can’t run fast. But they make life peaceful and merry. I hope everyone can enjoy some wonderful pig books in this year of the pig.
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News
Oink – Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review
Oink has received a starred review by Publisher’s Weekly. “Eager to take a bath, a pig hangs his towel from the stepladder and climbs into the tub. It closes its eyes contentedly, but the moment of quiet is cut short by a knock on the door. A sheep, dressed in a skirted swimsuit and carrying… Read more »
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News
How do you turn kids into bookworms – The Guardian
What books made you a reader? And how do you turn kids into bookworms? 10 children’s laureates shared their tips their tips with The Guardian readers.
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News
‘Short Books for Kids That Make a Big Impact’, New York Times – The Runaways reviewed
Written by the beloved Swedish author Ulf Stark and generously illustrated by the Belgian artist Kitty Crowther, a winner of the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and translated from the Swedish by Julia Marshall, THE RUNAWAYS (Gecko, 144 pp., $17.99; ages 6 to 11) also depicts a culture that will seem very different to most… Read more »
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News
The Runaways – New York Times Review
The writing is unflashy and deadpan except for when it’s unflashy and musical. Crowther’s bright, naïve pencil illustrations fit the offbeat text.
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Events
Clotilde Perrin and Eric Veillé visit Christchurch – Agnew Reading report
Visiting children’s book artists always have the difficulty of trying to address two groups – the children who read their books and the adults who buy them. Touring French picture book artists Eric Veillé and Clotilde Perrin dealt with the problem with Gallic aplomb.
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Events
Renowned French illustrators visit NZ
Award-winning French picture book author-illustrators Clotilde Perrin (Inside the Villains) and Eric Veillé (Encyclopedia of Grannies and My Pictures after the Storm) are touring New Zealand in May for the Embassy of France’s Les Petits Kiwis (Reading Kiwis) Festival in association with Gecko Press, Alliance Francaise and Institut Francais.
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Do you love good books for children?
