Early October brings Bookshop Days so we asked booksellers around Aotearoa to share a book that was special to them growing up, a book that raised them. Sometimes, when you’re surrounded by so many good books, it’s hard to pick just one. Jenna at Time Out, Auckland Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak… Read more »
![Good Night Sleep Tight by Kirstina Andres, Gecko Press Good Night Sleep Tight by Kirstina Andres, Gecko Press](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Goodnight_banner-960x330.jpg)
In the Forbidden Forest with Ole Könnecke
![Ole Konnecke](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Ole-Konnecke-cropped-150x150.jpg)
For the release his book Dulcinea in the Forbidden Forest, Ole took over the Gecko Press Instagram account to show behind the scenes of creating the story.
Koro/Pops and Mihi: Q&A with Gavin Bishop
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In their own way these ‘little’ books are as challenging as the much bigger books I’ve been doing in recent years. They don’t take as long because they don’t
Seeds of the Hattie story: Frida Nilsson
![Frida Nilsson](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Frida-Nilsson_square-150x150.jpg)
Frida Nilsson shares the inspiration behind her much-loved character Hattie and memories of her own school days for the publication of Hattie and Olaf.
Scan this! Enjoying the barcode
![Barcode image using Encyclopedia of Grannies](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/grannies-barcode-150x150.jpg)
by rachel lawson There’s a bookshelf behind Julia’s desk at Gecko Press that miraculously houses examples of whatever we need whenever we need it. These are books we have loved but never published in English, for one reason or another. Julia often reaches in, mid conversation, to pull out exactly the book we need to… Read more »
Diverse perspectives in children’s books
![Duck Death and the Tulip](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/DDT-Duck-dies-150x150.jpg)
Reading books from around the world expands our thinking. Yet international titles make up only a small percentage of books on the shelves of children…
Illustrating for the imagination
![Two people happy in the sun](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Gecko_blog_Dickinson-150x150.jpg)
Currently, my mind-expanding travels take place on the pages of a different type of passport — the picture book. Here, both pictures and words offer a chance to travel without a plane ticket, to a new world, be it real or imagined. A picture book offers a round trip to the imagination, and these days, that’s my dream destination.
Gecko Press books shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults
![three books in a row, Mihi, the Inkberg Enigma and Egg and Spoon](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/IMG_1617-150x150.jpg)
We are very pleased to announce that three Gecko Press books have been shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
Day in the life of Anke Kuhl
![Anke Kuhl at her desk](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/01-150x150.jpg)
Anke Kuhl shows us how she brought the weird and wonderful animal kingdom to life in Do Animals Fall in Love?
It takes a village to raise a reader
![Inside the Villains (c) Clotilde Perrin](https://geckopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Inside-the-Villains-spot-art-1-c-Clotilde-Perrin-150x150.jpg)
Once the connection has been made, for it to stay alive, there need to be more books, more nudges from more people, and they need to be meaningful to what that particular child needs at that particular moment.