Book list: Some favourites chosen by our authors and illustrators

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Gecko Press authors and illustrators have excellent taste, so we figured they were excellent people to ask for recommendations.

Read on for some inspiration.

Kimberly Andrews, illustrator, Song of the River

Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis

What author or illustrator working today would you love to work with or do you particularly admire?

I have always admired Helen Oxenbury and her illustration style and especially loved how she combined watercolour spreads and black and white charcoal drawings in We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. I also find Carson Ellis very inspiring. Her colour palette and style of illustration reminds me of life in my childhood and family home.

 

 

Sweep by Louise Greig and Júlia Sardà

 

Nora Brech, author/illustrator, Cornelia and the Jungle Machine

What author or illustrator working today would you love to work with, or do you particularly admire?

Júlia Sardà! She is amazing!

 

 

The big book of animals of the world, book about animals, Ole Konnecke, books for preschoolers

The Big Book of Animals of the World by Ole Könnecke

Giselle Clarkson, illustrator, The Gobbledegook Book

What author or illustrator working today would you love to work with or do you particularly admire?

This might be a bit of an obvious answer, but I have wanted to be Quentin Blake since I was in kindergarten! I also really like books by Ole Könnecke. I have an almost total, lifelong aversion to most sports but Sports Are Fantastic Fun! actually had me on board! It’s also a fantasy of mine to illustrate a giant encyclopaedia of animals like he did.

 

 

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

Barbara Else, author Harsu and the Werestoat

What was your favourite book when you were 10?

I loved books of all kind—true stories from history, gritty fairy tales like E Nesbit’s, school stories by Enid Blyton, a book called Into the Happy Glade by Trevor Dudley Smith that made me roll on the floor laughing every single time I read it. I especially adored C. S. Lewis’s Tales of Narnia. My favourite was The Magician’s Nephew — the one that explains how the world of Narnia began. Between all the worlds lies a wood of slender trees and quiet ponds. If you sink into a pond it will take you to a new world. That is a gorgeous image of what happens when we read—we sink into a story and find ourselves in extraordinary places.

 

How to Make Friends with a Ghost by Rebecca Green

Ulrika Kestere, author/illustrator, Otto Goes North

What authors and illustrators working today do you particularly admire?

I love Beatrice Alemagna, Machiko Kaede, Kate Pugsley, Rebecca Green and many more!

 

 

 

Grignotin et Mentalo, animaux sauvages by Delphine Bournay

Catharina Valckx, author/illustrator, Zanzibar, Bruno, Lisette’s Green Sock (coming May 2020)

Can you recommend some books for early readers that were originally written in French?

My favourite books written in French for young readers aren’t translated into English. For instance, Nono Ouvre un Magasin or La Baguette qui Marchait Pas by Nadja, or the stories of Grignotin et Mentalo by Delphine Bournay. I can warmly recommend Poor Little Witch Girl by Marie Desplechin, and of course the comics Asterix and Obélix (Goscinny and Uderzo), Tintin (Hergé), Gaston Lagaffe (Franquin) … all are classics that I loved.

 

Eric Veillé, author/illustrator, My Pictures After the Storm, Encyclopedia of Grannies

What author or illustrator working today would you love to work with or do you particularly admire?

I love Kitty Crowther’s work and how she can talk about everything without any taboo, Catharina Valckx’s well thought-out and funny stories, and Axel Scheffler drawings.

 

Bei Lynn, author/illustrator of Bibbit Jumps (coming July 2020)

What author or illustrator working today would you love to work with or do you particularly admire?

I love Kitty Crowther and Isol, and feel they are creators who really believe in children. Whatever their stories are about, there are always new ideas and things to think about, and children get them! I also like Jockum Nordstrom, I have five of his books, and while at first there may not seem to be much of a story, they’re full of interesting and important details—when I look at his pictures I can smell the sea. And, if I could, I’d like to watch Jon Klasson at work to see how he works with images and text to construct his stories, and how he decides what to leave out from one page to the next. The way he tells stories is really interesting.

Frida Nilsson, author The Ice Sea Pirates, Hattie

Can you recommend some other books for children originally written in Swedish?

Den Vita Stenen (The White Stone) by Gunnel Linde, Loranga, Masarin & Dartanjang (Soda Pop) by Barbro Lindgren, Josefin (Josephine) by Maria Gripe, Pappan Och Havet (Moominpappa at Sea) by Tove Jansson – Jansson was from Finland but wrote in Swedish), Ronja Rövardotter (Ronia, The Robber’s Daughter) by Astrid Lindgren.