The My Happy Life chapter book series is one of the most acclaimed and loved we’ve published at Gecko Press. The books have attached themselves firmly to many of us working with them over the years, so as booksellers, publishers and designers, we asked ourselves what we’ve enjoyed most about My Happy Life.
I had a note by my computer screen with the colours from the brief: red, pink, summer orange, gold, paperbag brown, no black. The colours make a feeling and you take that feeling and turn it into a picture.
And they’re delicious colours. They make food look good.
In the introduction for the book, you’ve written that if Pipi was a cake, she would be this glorious towering sponge cake. If you were a cake, what would you be?
If I was a cake, I love the idea of a tall wobbly sponge and defying all odds.
Anete Melece is a Latvian author and illustrator. On Wednesday 23rd September she took over the Gecko Press Instagram account to share her journey of becoming a freelance illustrator, how she created The Kiosk, and what she is working on now.
Wordless picture books can be magical. With no text pulling our eyes away, adults and children can explore the pictures together, and together tell the story.
Mihi is Gavin Bishop’s beautiful new baby book that introduces ideas of me and my place in the world in the shape of a simple mihi or pepeha.
Gavin Bishop shares his mihi and how you can you the book Mihi to guide you to create your own.
Author and illustrator, Gavin Bishop, shares his story of how he discovered his family history, his ancestors, and his whānau.
“Finding this enormous whānau came about because of what my grandfather had taken care to do in 1918. When he gave his youngest daughter, my mother, “all the names” he also gave her her whakapapa.”
Bei Lynn is an award-winning artist from Taiwan who has illustrated around 20 picture books for children. She took over the Gecko Press Instagram account on Thursday 13th August to share her day and also gave a sneak peek of her next book coming out next year!
Anna Fiske is an illustrator, author and cartoonist from Sweden. She took over the Gecko Press Instagram account on Wednesday 8th July and here is a peek into her workroom, her artwork, her process – and lots of drawings of babies!
A challenge for publishers is to continue to be brave in what we choose to publish. Gecko Press has always chosen books that are not mainstream, that are curiously good and that look at the world in ways that surprise us. It is tempting to start looking towards the soft books that are likely to sell in droves. But if ever there was a time to not publish safe, it is now.
