Friends of Gecko Press
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.
Friends of Gecko Press takes books to places they are not normally found and works with anyone who wants to encourage a child to love to read. This community 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 become a Friend of Gecko Press and share them with us.
Do you want to receive our monthly newsletter, events invitations and special offers?
Gecko Press Blog:
Time to be brave: publishing in a pandemic
Julia Marshall started Gecko Press in 2005 when she discovered that Ulf Stark’s classic Can You Whistle, Johanna? had been translated into 20 languages but not English…and that was the start of being brave for Gecko Press.
15 years on and in the middle of a pandemic, Julia reflects on publishing children’s books.
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Click on the image to download the activity sheet.
Book List of the month: Stories that teach kindness
This month’s book list is from Bridget Schaumann, Chair of the Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival Trust.
As Bridget says on the books in her list, “[these books] melted my cynical old heart, I guarantee you’ll feel that too with these treasures.”
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To receive a reading journal, send us an email at [email protected] with ‘Gecko Press Reading Journal’ subject line and your home address. Currently available to New Zealand club members only. Produced with support from the Wright Family Foundation.
Q&As
Migrants: Q&A with Issa Watanabe
Issa Watanabe was born in Peru, the daughter of an illustrator and a poet.
Migrants is a vital and powerful wordless picture book of courage, loss and hope—the definitive story of what it takes to migrate to a new land.
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Curiously Good Book Club
Adding your own story to Mihi
Mihi is Gavin Bishop’s beautiful new baby book that introduces ideas of me and my place in the world in the shape of a simple mihi or pepeha.
Gavin Bishop shares his mihi and how you can you the book Mihi to guide you to create your own.
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Curiously Good Book Club
How Gavin Bishop discovered his whakapapa
Author and illustrator, Gavin Bishop, shares his story of how he discovered his family history, his ancestors, and his whānau.
“Finding this enormous whānau came about because of what my grandfather had taken care to do in 1918. When he gave his youngest daughter, my mother, “all the names” he also gave her her whakapapa.”
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Curiously Good Book Club
Day in the life of Bei Lynn
Bei Lynn is an award-winning artist from Taiwan who has illustrated around 20 picture books for children. She took over the Gecko Press Instagram account on Thursday 13th August to share her day and also gave a sneak peek of her next book coming out next year!
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Book Lists
Book list: Great graphic novels
This month’s book list has been put together by Monty Masseurs to celebrate the launch of Jonathan King’s first graphic novel for children, The Inkberg Enigma.
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News
New Gecko Press guidelines for online storytimes
Gecko Press and Walker Books Australia want to encourage reading and classroom read-aloud experiences, and to support schools and public libraries dealing with the escalating COVID-19 outbreak. If you are a teacher, librarian or bookseller moving your storytimes or read-alouds online and wish to share Gecko Press titles, please do not hesitate to get in… Read more »
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Do you love good books for children?
