In Hazel and the Snails by Nan Blanchard, this week's beautifully written Book of the Week, six-year-old Hazel tends her colony of shoe-box snails while observing, with varying degrees of understanding, her father's illness and decline. 
>> Read Stella's review. 
>> Read an excerpt. 
>> The book is beautifully illustrated by Giselle Clarkson. 
>> Meet Nan Blanchard.
>> "A gorgeous book, full of life and humour and sad bits."
>> This is the first title from Kate De Goldi's and Susan Paris's Annual Ink as the New Zealand children's imprint of Massey University Press.