LUCY THE GIANT

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. (Feb.)