Lucy the Giant by Sherri L. Smith.

Smith, Sherri L. Lucy the Giant. Random House, 2002. 217 pages. ISBN: 0-440-22927-8. Available in hardback and paperback

Lucy the Giant is a young adult novel about a 15-year old Sitka girl who runs away from home and ends up commercial crabbing out of Kodiak. Lucy's home life is awful: her mother is absent and her father is a mean drunk. Lucy craves her father's love and rarely gets it, so when she finds a stray dog, she pours all her love into the dog. The dog dies shortly thereafter, and Lucy is distraught. Mistaken for an adult because she is so tall, she ends up on a plane to Kodiak where she wins a drinking contest that lands her a job as crew on a crab boat. Lucy proves herself to be strong and brave, and makes good friends on the boat, but in the end, she is found out. Lucy returns to Kodiak with more self-confidence and a desire to finish high school and get out of Sitka and on to college.

1. Is the story free of negative stereotypes, false language, comic or crass illustrations and other demeaning stereotypes that would make an indigenous child feel uncomfortable, embarrassed or ashamed?
Unfortunately, the story contains a terrible stereotype. Lucy's absent mother is a Haida Indian who has returned to her village in Kake, leaving Lucy with the drunken dad. Lucy misses her mother terribly, and feels abandoned by her. Logic would tell you that her unnamed mother would have taken her away from the abusive father, but she has not, and there is no explanation why.
Since Lucy's dad is short, we have to infer that her mother has given Lucy her dark hair and her large size, at which Lucy despairs. As she matures in the story, however, we see her large body as strong and capable. Lucy is also very smart, easily getting good grades in school, and knowing how to handle herself in adult situations. Unfortunately, none of her good attributes are ever related in the story to her Native heritage. Near the end of the story, Lucy falls out of the crab boat in a storm and is drowning when an orca pushes her to the surface. This could possibly symbolize Lucy's closeness to nature, or as one reviewer speculated, that she really is related to a whale (hence her size.)

2. Does the story help the reader develop understanding about the human condition? Is it good literature?
Lucy the Giant is definitely a coming of age story. Her journey is more harrowing than that of most teenagers and makes for a compelling read. In fact, the American Library Association chose it as one of its best reads for young adults for 2003. We learn about self-knowledge, determination and courage from Lucy's adventure. I believe that many teenagers would relate to Lucy's attitude that she is "a giant" and a loner and that her life is terrible. Lucy sees the world in Sitka in black and white, and most of it is black. When she returns home, she has a more realistic view of her home and of herself.

3. Does the story show geography, history, culture and spirituality accurately?
Some geographic inaccuracies mar the story for Alaskan readers. On page 44, Lucy explains that her mother returns to her village near Kake.

My mother came from a little village near Kake, which is already a little town. A pissy little place, she told me. Lots of drunks. Lots of mean drunkds. I looked it up once at school. A.most every mohth somebody dies in my mom's hometown in a barroom brawl. More bars than jobs, I guess. (page 44.)

Not only is this stereotypical, it's also inaccurate, since Kake is a Tlingit village.

Later in the story, Lucy sets out from Kodiak on the crab boat and shortly arrive in the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea is located north of the Aleutian Peninsula, and could never be reached in a few days from Kodiak.

Unfortunately, the book does not show anything about Haida history, culture or spirituality. As a reader, I couldn't help but wish that Lucy had her Haida culture to draw upon in addressing her troubles.

4. Is the language beautiful?
Everyone in the story speaks standard English. The descriptions of Lucy's life in Sitka are incredibly depressing and grim. When I started reading the book, I put it down because it just made me feel bad. Months later when I picked it up again, I found it took over half the book before things began to look up and for me to be hooked on the story.

5. Does the story develop a range of characters?
A full cast of characters demonstrates a range of goodness and badness found in any group of people. It's sad though that there simply are no Haida characters in the story. Even though Lucy is half Haida, she seems to be culturally "American." Lucy's dad is really a disgusting man, and seems totally unable to pull himself out of his drunken dissipated lifestyle. Luckily, Lucy meets some older men, including the captain of the crab boat, who provide good models of maleness and serve as father figures for her. She also meets a wonderful woman friend provides friendship and nurturing. I felt sad for Lucy because of her lack of being mothered.

6. Will children want to read or listen to this story?
Apparently, this book is very popular with young adult (middle school) audiences. I read several reviews of it, and found teachers reading it to elementary students, which I would not do. The book is so depressing at the beginning that I know my middle school daughter would never read it.

7. Are the author and/or illustrator qualified to make this book?
The author, Sherri Smith, is a young African American woman. According to her biography, she has led a full life that does NOT include crabbing in Alaska. I have emailed her asking how she got her information about the crab boat, but she did not respond. She is definitely not qualified to write about an Alaska Native perspective. She's not even tall, so I'm not sure how she can understand being a "giant" either. She obviously has a rich imagination and a gift for storytelling. It's so sad to me that a woman of minority culture herself would write so derogatively about a Haida woman.

8. Does the story give children something to think and talk about?.
Absolutely yes. In spite of its faults, the book would make a great book for a literature circle as long as no Native young people were in the group. I believe the story would make a Native child from Southeast Alaska feel terrible.

9. Does the local Native community approve of the telling of this story?
No, of course not.

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