Jake's Dad has been lost in afishing boat accident so 14 year old Jake must work as a quahogger ( clam catcher) on another boat to save his family's diner from a mob who want their debts paid.

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Death of a father, grief and loss depiction
Score: Seven points out of ten.
Read this review for context. This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

I picked this up from the realistic shelf and I really hoped that this would be a good book and it turned out to be this way even though it has been published around 8 years ago now however it probably doesn't hold up very well against the books made since then and I won't pick this up again, where do I begin. For starters, it's very immersive, captivating and unique as well since really liked the setting and the quahogging but now that I look back it kind of reminds me of another book with the word swim in it. The ending was really nice but some parts were kind of heartbreaking and the father's death is mentioned at times but mainly the story is about saving the restaurant (it does relate to the father, as one of the characters said that it is a memory of him), and fishing. Overall, this is a book I would recommend if you like books like Moby Dick but if you want a better contemporary and realistic novel you can try Where the Road Leads Us by Robin Reul since it also deals with similar themes but in a different way. ( )

Swim that Rock is a great coming of age story suitable for older children. It begins with our main character Jake as he tries to find the mysterious man who left a note for him about his father who has been missing for 6 months. While working odd jobs to help keep their family restaurant a float, Jake sets out on a quest with the strange man to make a little money before time runs out on pass due payments. This book was not something I would normally pick up to read but the book immediately picks up in action in the first couple of chapters. I ended up having a new appreciation for the novel. It is a great chapter book for older boys where they began to pull away from reading due to the limited amount of interesting subject matter. I think the moral of this story is that not everything is what it seems. Things that seem like a mystery, were actually answered right in front of you. ( )

Loved It! Ms. G ( )

Jake refuses to believe his dad is dead, even though everything points to that being the case since he disappeared at sea. His mother is struggling to keep the diner running because they've lost the house and it's all they have left. Things look grim because they owe the local Mafia Wanna-be $10,000 and have a month to raise it. The story opens right in the middle of a hurricane with Jake trying to find the mysterious man who left him a message in the form of a $50.00 bill stuck to a post with a knife he believes belongs to his missing father. He locates the man in a seedy tavern. He's drunk, but orders Jake to accompany him on a questionable salvage operation in the middle of the storm that involves salvaging outboard motors and outrunning the Clam Cops.
After the storm passes, Jake goes to work for the mysterious Captain, harvesting illegal Quahogs in a closed area that's polluted. When they're chased by the Clam Cops, the Captain hits his head and Jake has to outrun the cops and get medical help.
Jake had planned to go Quahogging with his dad's best friend Gene, when the area that's been closed for a long time reopens, but while they're gathering clams at another location, the long rake handle breaks and Gene almost bleeds to death. Once again, Jake saves someone with his quick action.
Back at the diner, He's realizing that he likes Darcey, a girl his age who helps out and is terribly self conscious about her severely burned arm.
What Jake does on his own when the closed area reopens, including an impulsive act to help a stranger, coupled with his kindness toward Darcey make the last third of the book a truly engrossing and feel-good read. Tweens and teens will really enjoy this great coming of age tale. ( )