The Fox and the Clam — Eric Kraft

Peter Leroy recalls his childhood friend Matthew Barber. Peter and Matthew seem unlikely friends. Matthew finds little to like in life, and his outlook is decidedly blue. Peter finds much to like in life, though nearly everything puzzles him, and he is essentially sanguine about his future, no matter how groundless his optimism might be. Eventually the friends find, as most friends do, that each has added to his developing self a little of the other. • "A wonderfully wacky ringing of plot changes on the kind of idiotically moralistic fables that used to fill the pages of elementary school readers." -- John Stark Bellamy II, The Cleveland Plain Dealer • "It is all about happiness and despair, and it is exceedingly wise and exceedingly funny." -- Lee Pennock Huntington, Vermont Sunday Magazine