Samuel: Moroni's Young Warrior

Samuel Adventure #1

by Clair M. Poulson

Book by Poulson, Clair

Genres: Lds Fiction, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Lds, Fiction, Fantasy

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Clair M. Poulson was born and raised in Duchesne, Utah. His father was a rancher and farmer, his mother a librarian. Clair has always been an avid reader, having found his love for books as a very young boy.

He has served for forty years in the criminal justice system. Twenty years were spent in law enforcement, ending his police career with eight years as the Duchesne County Sheriff. For the past twenty years Clair has worked as a justice court judge for Duchesne County. Clair is also a veteran of the US Army where he was a military policeman. He has served on various boards and councils during his professional career, including the Justice Court Board of Judges, Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Utah Judicial Council, Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, an FBI advisory board and others.

In addition to his criminal justice work, Clair has farmed and ranched all of his life. He has raised many kinds of animals, but his greatest interest is horses.

Clair has served in many capacities in the LDS church, including fulltime missionary (California Mission) bishop, counselor to bishop, young men president, high councilor, stake mission president, scoutmaster, High Priest group leader, etc. He currently serves as a Sunday School teacher.

Clair is married to Ruth, and together, they have five children, all of whom are married: Alan (Vicena) Poulson, Kelly Ann (Wade) Hatch, Amanda (Ben) Semadeni, Wade (Brooke) Poulson, and Mary (Tyler) Hicken. Between them they have twenty-three children. Clair and Ruth met while both were students at Snow College and were married in the Manti temple.

Clair has always loved telling his children, and later his grandchildren, make-up stories. His vast experience in life and his love of literature has always contributed to both his telling stories to children and his writing of adventure and suspense novels.

Reviews

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short book and would be good for a young reader. It jumps around a bit too much and Samuel is unrealistically lucky but that helps the story move along. This author is terrible when it comes to writing anything about romance and this story is no exception to that pattern but that is just incidental to the story so not a real distraction. There are some good messages and the ending is pretty exciting. I didn’t find it great but definitely good.

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute simple book. It is pretty juvenile. I'm surprised Clair Poulson didn't do a more clean job of making the transitions flow better. With the audio, there were times when it would skip characters or timelines and it would take a while for me to figure out what was going on... I had to slow down the speed, as the ready read very fast. A cute little story that helps give a glimpse into that time period.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't stop myself from snorting in derision over this book, though it's been ok, I guess. I'm not quite finished with it, but I've found the writing to be a bit choppy and sometimes thoughts are not quite completed. Some of the characters are very irrational and the author seems to be as confused about women as his main character is! His female characters are very extreme in their actions and reactions. But overall the story is good and there are some exciting parts. My daughter really liked it!

[Megan Howarth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have the curse of if I own a book I have to read it, even (or especially) if the book was given as to me as a gift, which this was. Full disclosure: as a teenager I remember reading and liking the Tennis Shoe series, but my relationship with the Book of Mormon and its historicity is more complex now and I'm not sure I'd have liked the series had I picked them up today. However, current feelings aside, there's no denying that that series was thoroughly researched and the setting was 100% plausible. This was not. It was as if the author didn't want to make a firm decision on where the novel took place geographically, and so he just made it a hodgepodge. The generic forest was sometimes pine and sometimes rainforest, with the animals and climate likewise varying from North American to South American for no reason, sometimes within the same paragraph. There were also misspellings, sentence fragments, and inconsistencies galore. The author's bio at the end said that he liked to make up and tell bedtime stories to his children, and it showed; I can see this maybe being a cute bedtime story but as a novel it was in desperate need of an editor.

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the book so much that I still have questions about this book being a series. It ended so perfectly that their is no reason why they should continue the story.

1. All of their enemies are dead
2. The war has been won by Captain Moroni's army
3. Samuel and Gadoni have been happily married to their ladies

But, I still can't wait to read the next book though.

[Stephen Greco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertains series for me when I was a kid. I read it because I was big into the Tennis Shoes series and it ended up being similar but not as good. Entertaining enough.

[Thomas C.Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very simple read, yet enjoyable. If you like the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series, you would probably enjoy this simple read.

[Lawana Sisam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new look at the Book Of Mormon character. Fun to see it through someone else's eyes!

[Rene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Book of Mormon territory with names that fit in perfectly (Teor, Pachor, Sam, Kamina, Gadoni, Ophera, Latoni, Laishta), we have really enjoyed this adventure story. Eric, almost 12, and William age 8, and I look forward to reading every night and usually last longer than usual. The character development is very satisfying. Many adventures: Sadness, happiness, love, death, attacks by the Lamanites, captures and escapes etc.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty fun read. It had a plausible story line for the wars during Captain Moroni. The "real" characters were generally in secondary rather than primary characters. It was quick and fun. The editing could have used a little work.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives you the feel of what it would of been like to live in Captain Moroni's time. I am going to give this book to Alyssa to read, I think she will enjoy it. Very action packed

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Own: Book

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a VERY fun read aloud with my older kids. We loved the action adventure and have started on the next book in the series.

[kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was great in Elementary school :)

[Renee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of good verse evil with a little adventure and romance thrown into the mix.

[Tyler Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey this is one I own and not my sister. It's a really good book.