Quarter Finalist
Assessment:
Plot: Thirteen-year-old Pace's escapist adventures come to life in this richly crafted and fast-paced novel. Though its appeal may lean more toward adults than YA or middle-grade readers, they will thoroughly enjoy the journey through Pace's escapades on the magic carpet of Shaw's writing.
Prose: Dexterous prose and a vividly imaginative style characterize Shaw's writing. Marvelous sensory details and sublimely surreal imagery make the reading experience an enchanting one.
Originality: Shaw's novel is utterly original from its beginning in a bright South American market to Pace's emergence at the end from his jungle camp. The sparkling cast of characters and captivating story twists recall some of the greats of surrealistic fiction while still feeling wholly unique.
Character Development: Pace's adventure is more the focus of this story than his development, but he makes for a fine narrator and his friends a wonderful cast of characters to carry him along on the journey. His age is difficult to decipher early in the book, as he behaves at times like a young child and others like a teen; this discrepancy initially muddies his characterization but evens out as the story takes flight.
Blurb: Vividly imaginative and enchantingly conceived, "Smallfish Clover" is a magic carpet ride into a captivating new Wonderland. Shaw's nimble writing turns young Pace's adventure into a lucid dream.
Date Submitted: April 02, 2019
Shaw deftly evokes the wonder of an ordinary individual’s ability to affect changes beyond his wildest dreams. —Foreword Magazine
Heather Shaw paints a beautiful masterpiece of a story... 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
