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.
The creation of Have You Seen Dinosaur?
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.
An English version as entertaining and easy as the original
My primary task as a translator was to reproduce the flow and fun of the stories, making the English versions as entertaining and easy to read as the originals. Of course I didn’t try to do this by simplifying Panda and Squirrel’s plans, but by taking slight liberties in the literal content to maintain clarity.
Serendipity—one reason we attend the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is a cornerstone of the Gecko Press business, and it was magnificent for me and Julia to be back under the porticos in Italy this March—four years since the last visit!
The many wisdoms of Detective Gordon
We frequently follow Gordon’s policies on small cakes, namely to introduce one to a situation wherever possible. To mark the final book in this junior fiction series, we collected five of our (other) favourite wisdoms.
Be kind to the duck
Written by Julia Marshall, founder of Gecko Press.
We are celebrating the life of Wolf Erlbruch, who died this week aged 75.
Duck, Death and the Tulip is a pivotal book for Gecko Press, one of the books I am most proud to have on our list.
