Fish Friday

Pearson's first novel is an uneven story about families, feelings and responsibility. Although Jamie Madden has known little else, she has always scorned the small-town life she's led in Sensaby. The one person who understands her dreams for something more is her motherwho has moved to New York City to study art. When her mother invites her to move to New York, Jamie is ecstatic, until she learns that it was her father's suggestion. Jamie feels pulledbetween life in New York and her little brother Inky, who needs her. In the end, after a predictable accident on Sensaby's ""Fish Friday,'' in which Jamie saves Inky from drowning, she realizes how much Inky depends on her, and that her father does love her, even if he doesn't know how to show it. Although the small town of Sensaby is realistically brought to life, and Jamie and Inky's relationship is heartwarmingly depicted, the book is marredby Jamie, who is initially unappealing and unsympathetic, by her unexplained ``best friendship'' with a girl she doesn't seem to like much, and by the unattractive cover, which shows Jamie looking more like Inky's mother than his sister. (10-14)