By Rachel Lawson Reuse has always been the most enjoyable part of the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra. And no picturebook creator reuses better than Leo Timmers. It’s the topic of Gus’s Garage: “Here comes Gus. The things he stores! Whatever will he use them for?” The answers appear as each visitor leaves the garage with… Read more »
What a delight to receive the Picture Book Award for Titiro / Look at the New Zealand Children and Young Adult book awards ceremony this August. This board book by Gavin Bishop began life as a wordless leporello for babies and developed into a book of first words that takes te ao Māori as its… Read more »
By Rachel Lawson, publisher-at-large The phrase “fractured fairy tale” took a while to permeate the Gecko Press lexicon. Possibly because we saw most of these books first as funny stories. It turns out we’ve made a number of fairy tales with a difference over the years. They have familiar characters and a story structure we… Read more »
by rachel lawson, publisher-at-large One of the best books we’ve published at Gecko Press is All the Dear Little Animals by Ulf Nilsson and Eva Eriksson. Three children start a funeral business to bury the dead animals they find in their neighbourhood. This book takes me instantly to my own childhood garden and to important… Read more »
The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate is an enduring story by Joy Cowley that was first published as a school reader in 1984. Gecko Press published a picture book edition illustrated by Sarah Davis in 2010. In 2024, Japanese publisher Tokuma Shoten commissioned Miho Satake to create illustrations to go alongside their Japanese… Read more »
David Barrow is author and illustrator of Have You Seen Elephant? and Have You Seen Dinosaur? Come in to his studio… My studio is at the bottom of my garden. It’s built from an old outbuilding previously used by Kettering shoemakers to make shoes from home. It’s warm, has internet, and is my happy place…. Read more »
Gavin Bishop has created four board books for the very young that introduce first words and concepts through a lens of whānau and our place in the world. The direct gaze of child and adult faces draws the reader into each illustration, while single words spark conversation about objects, emotions, relationships and more. The series… Read more »
Sofia Chanfreau’s ‘Giraffe Island’ is a magical adventure about Vega and her unseen animal friends. Discover the mystery and magic. Available August 2024.
Julie Völk’s ‘A Rainy Dragon Day’ is a tale of friendship and fantasy. Join Fred the dragon on a cozy, rainy day turned magical journey. Available August 2024.
I am particularly fond of books which feature kind characters, especially when those books are for children and young people. Here are some that are new and some that have been part of my life for a long time.
