Happy Happy Clover

vol 5

Sayuri Tatsuyama

Clover tries to get out of preparing for her tests, again. She wants to invite Rambler to stay in her house when it rains, but he mysteriously refuses to leave his tent. Clover and Hickory magically exchange bodies- but will they reverse the spell in time? (and of course they discover that it's not all roses, being someone else). Mallow tries to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. She finds she has an admirer, and Kale meets his pen-pal- who isn't at all like he'd pictured. I liked most of these stories, but I didn't really care for how the book ended. I was expecting to see an entire storyline about Clover's adventures with Rambler, and instead there's build-up to the event: the entire forest community shows their support for Clover to follow her dream, and a forest fire threatens to ruin her plans. Then we see her go off, and the next page she returns to the forest to see all her friends grown up. I felt cheated. I wanted to see some exploring adventures! Plus the author stated quite clearly throughout the book that this was the last one, so there won't be another volume just of her travels, like I half-hoped.

There is a very sweet bonus-story at the end that shows how Clover and Rambler first met. I liked that. He's my favorite character of them all, next to the quiet, unshakable Hickory (flying squirrel).

rating: 3/5 ........ 192 pages, 2010