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 »
Humour, heart and human nature for early readers — Gecko Press junior fiction
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 »
Can I Sit in the Middle?: Q&A with Susanne Strasser
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.
Hilary Tapper on creating a beach storybook
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.
The creation of Have You Seen Dinosaur?
This month we’re celebrating the release of my latest picture book Have You Seen Dinosaur?, lovingly published by the wonderful Gecko Press. So in honour of this event I’d like to invite you into my studio.
Giselle Clarkson’s life as an observologist
Hello! I’m Giselle, author and illustrator of The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions.
I’m absolutely fascinated by all the smallest details in nature. I especially love tiny invertebrates. I wrote this book because I want to share all my favourite things about them with other people.
Book list: 21 of the best leporellos
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 »
When Dad’s Hair Took Off UK blog tour
Last week, When Dad’s Hair Took Off went on a whirlwind tour of UK reviewers.
Read what they had to say about Dad’s Hair’s adventures below.
Admirable mothers in picture books
For Mother’s Day, we are noticing books that demonstrate good parenting—often without the child realising. The Poo Bum series is one.
The House that Jack Built in Aotearoa New Zealand schools
This picture book tells the story of colonisation in Aotearoa for our tamariki and our rangatahi. They can look at and see and feel–what happened here, what was the impact, what changed in Aotearoa from page one to the end of the book? This book is a huge asset as a launch pad for deeper learning for our students.
