‘My characters were strong children who could always win. They didn’t need adults to win for them; they could do it themselves. And I tried to put in a joke at the end of the story. I learned to write for children by reading and talking to them. I was taught to write by children.’… Read more »
This image by Sarah Wilkins from A Book Is a Book represents so well that reading books is both solo and social, depending on all the people who recommend, share, buy, borrow and talk about books—and put them into our hands, of course. In anticipation that Gecko Press readers will be putting books in the… Read more »
By Rachel Lawson The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate has the kind of publishing history you find with Joy Cowley’s most enduring stories. The tale of the fierce little woman who walked up and down the jetty playing her bagpipes to the seagulls was originally published in 1984 as a school reader. Gecko… Read more »
Julia Marshall is the former publisher of Gecko Press and still our number one translator from Swedish. We asked her to write about translating Giraffe Island by Sofia Chanfreau and Amanda Chanfreau. Giraffe Island is a magical realist mystery adventure for 8- to 12-year-olds. It is a playful, fresh and beautifully written story about a… Read more »
Gavin Bishop has created four board books for the very young that introduce first words and concepts through a lens of whānau and our place in the world. The direct gaze of child and adult faces draws the reader into each illustration, while single words spark conversation about objects, emotions, relationships and more. The series… Read more »
By Rachel Lawson The page turn is at the heart of the picture book. Unobtrusive or dramatic, satisfying or surprising, it makes a picture book sink or sing. The turn of a page speeds or slows the pace, sets us up and rewards us, reveals a joke or surprise, draws us carefully through a story… Read more »
At Bologna Book Fair in April 2024, Lerner Books held a special reception to celebrate the acquisition of Gecko Press and its 65th birthday. Below is the hello goodbye birthday speech from Julia Marshall. Thank you to Rob Sharp for the photographs, taken serendipitously as he was walking in the porticos and thought this looked… Read more »
At Gecko Press we have a fondness for books for six- to nine-year-olds, especially ones that appeal to children with a dry sense of humour. In the same way that trees suddenly appear grown, we now have a wonderful collection of illustrated junior fiction. Our first published book was a chapter book—Can You Whistle, Johanna?… Read more »
Like all my books in this series, the story has a cumulative structure that increases up to a surprising twist, finally resulting in an unexpected happy ending.
This increasing structure automatically creates expectations and growing excitement.
Kia ora! Hilary here, the illustrator of At the Bach.
Creating this book was a really special process for me—I got to focus on creating a book about the delight of ‘baches’ in New Zealand culture.
