Smallfish Clover

by Heather Shaw

Smallfish Clover, like most affluent American boys, has many skills and inner resources. But how these gifts get used in the real world can lead to success and happiness, or useless death. It’s a test all young people must take at some time or another, although in our society we often try to postpone it indefinitely. The children of poverty, however, don’t have the luxury of wasting difficult decisions. And in a sense, the writing of this book was a kind of incantation to protect my own children from making bad choices with terrible consequences.

"Heather Shaw paints a beautiful masterpiece of a story that leaves the reader feeling proud, sad, and somewhat confused—much like Smallfish and his friends feel much of the time. This is powerful, reality-based fiction—albeit of a reality few of us know, and one which no boy should ever have to face head-on the way Smallfish does." —Daniel Jolley, Top 50 Reviewer at Amazon.com

374 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 7, 2007

About the author

Heather Lee Shaw grew up on a cherry farm in Yuba, Michigan.

In the third grade, Shaw decided she was a writer. To date, she has written and published eight books.

Shaw is Director of Design and Marketing at Mission Point Press.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was told from the perspective of a young boy who may have a bit of attention disorder or at least a vivid imagination and a tendency to make somewhat illogical sense of confusing situations. As such, parts of it are confusing and disjointed, as he pieces together the odd things he does see into what he thinks is reality, and then has to adjust when some assumed part is revealed to be something else. He doesn't look hard enough at situations and often misses key details which come back to bite him or make life harder than if he'd just ask. The whole thing is tense and feels like a fever dream (including a section that truly IS a fever dream). Overall, I liked it. Many parts of it felt like being in the mind of my own young son who, like Pace, tends to take in 40% of a situation and assume he knows what will happen for the rest--usually resulting in some critical failure.

[Doris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could have finished this book to see where it went. I struggled, really struggled, to get about a third of the way through. Sentence to sentence, this author writes really well. I felt I saw the potential for her to be a great writer and this an acclaimed book. Why, I wondered through many pages, had this not got attention?
It's very imaginative, and she tells a good and intriguing tale. But, there's just too much, for me, anyway. In the hands of a good editor ready to slash away, this could have been amazing. Sadly, I don't know the end; I had to stop.

[Velvetink]

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