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.
Seeds of the Hattie story: Frida Nilsson
Scan this! Enjoying the barcode
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
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
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
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 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
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.
Day in the life of Catharina Valckx
Catharina Valckx takes us to her studio in Amsterdam and shows us how she created the charming Lisette in Lisette’s Green Sock.
Do Animals Fall in Love? The diversity of life and love in the animal kingdom
The parallels with human diversity and the ways animals express their sexuality and behave sexually are astonishing.
Children who read this book can discover that the most wide-ranging forms of life and love are a natural part of the diverse life on Earth.
Creating a rhyming translation of Where is the Dragon?
Translating rhyming texts is pretty hard, particularly when the text is so short and condensed. Of all the editions, James Brown’s versions deviate the most from the original text, but in a good way. They always surprise me, and I love it. He manages to capture the spirit of the text, while bringing his own imagination and poetry to it
