Smallfish Clover

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… (more)

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 …Shaw deftly evokes the wonder of an ordinary individual’s ability to affect changes beyond his wildest dreams. —ForeWord Magazine