WHAT SNAIL KNOWS

Written by Kathryn Apel and published by University of Queensland in paperback.

Something a little different for me which I absolutely loved illustrating. Released March 2022, 'What Snail Knows' is a very sweet story, a verse novel, written by the very talented Kathryn Apel. This little book gave me the opportunity to explore black and white illustrations for the text with the only colour one being the cover.

A moving story about a shy girl coming out of her shell with a little help from her pet snail

Lucy and Dad move a lot, so it's hard to make friends. Lucy's glad she has Snail, the perfect pet for a lonely girl. If only she had her own shell to hide in every time she started at a new school.

But this place is different. She likes her teacher, Miss Darling. She likes her classmates, especially Tahnee. She even likes Mei-hui's van park, where she lives with Dad and Snail. This place feels like home. But can she convince her dad to stay?

At 232 pages, it's a wonderful novel for those readers looking for something a little more challenging than a picture book. If you haven't read a verse novel before, it's an absolute treat... and Kat is a master of it.