Amazon.com Review
Distraught over the death of a stray dog she's adopted, and worn out after a lost childhood spent deflecting jabs at her towering height and picking up after her alcoholic, unemployed father, 15-year-old Lucy ("the Giant") escapes from her Sitka, Alaska, home north to Kodiak, and temporarily reinvents herself as an adult. Lucy, now known as Barbara, winds up on a crabbing boat, with a motley crew that is destined to help her along the painful path to self-discovery.
Fast-paced and poignant, Sherri L. Smith's first young adult novel will appeal to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider in her or his own world. Readers will root for Lucy, never doubting that she will come out ahead... eventually. Her struggles--both physical and emotional--are authentic and beautifully portrayed. Smith's descriptions of the grueling yet rewarding work on the Bering Sea are vivid, and reflect nicely the inner work of her protagonist. We hope this is only the first of many novels from this gifted new author. (Ages 12 and older) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
Lucy, the 15-year-old heroine of this bittersweet debut novel, quite literally doesn't fit in. At six-foot-plus (she has stopped measuring her height), she is the butt of constant teasing at her school in small-town Alaska; at home, her room, with its low angled ceiling and "doll-sized" bed, is so small she can't even stretch her legs out in it. Her mother abandoned the family years ago, leaving Lucy to dodge the rages of her alcoholic, unemployed father. Smith sets the stage quickly. In the opening scene, Lucy performs her almost nightly ritual of hauling her dad home after he passes out in a bar. Upset by the sudden death of the stray dog she had befriended, Lucy impulsively walks to the airport and, mistaken for a member of a "work tour," boards a charter flight to Kodiak. There, she wins a drinking contest in a bar and lands a job on a crabbing boat. Smith makes up for weaknesses in the dialogue with compelling descriptions of the harrowing storms at sea, backbreaking yet satisfying work on board and the heroine's deepening friendships with several crew members. Although Lucy's ability to pass for an adult strains credibility somewhat, as does the ending, her first-person narration is affecting. Ages 12-up.
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