BRILLIANT COMBINATION

What happens when you combine one of New Zealand's best loved children's writers with one of our finest children's book illustrators? You get SNAKE and LIZARD of course!

Looking through the shortlisted titles in the 2008 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards recently I noticed a title that had slipped under my radar last year.

Now I have a copy and what a delight it is.

Here is what children's book guru Dorothy Butler had to say about it:

"Snake & Lizard are a lovable, foolish pair, always arguing, embarking on unlikely enterprises and telling one another hotly contested tales - none of which behaviour lessens their affection for each other."

Well put Dorothy, And of course the combination of word and picture is quite sublime.

This is the first New Zealand book from Gecko Press, let us hope they are encouraged to bring us many more.

SNAKE and LIZARD

Joy Cowley & Gavin Bishop

Gecko Press - Hardback $29.99 Paperback $19.99

www.geckopress.com