"I loved Ebb & Flow, the story of a boy's summer with his grandmother in Newfoundland after 'a rotten bad year.' Smith shows us Jett's thoughts, his struggles with his guilt, his lashing out when it's just too painful. Grandma Jo takes him to collect glass on the beach — once broken, now shaped by the pounding of the waves into little gems. All the characters are broken and struggling, but aren't we all? Will the blows of life destroy them or shape them into something special? For me, this little novel is a real gem." ​