The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between (review)

Five-foot-ten at thirteen, Lucy Small is accustomed to humor at the expense of her name, as is her best friend, Jake Little, who is a dwarf no taller than four feet. Junior high brings challenges to their friendship, as Jake grows bitter about his divorced mother's new boyfriend and becomes increasingly interested in hanging with the tough crowd; Lucy, meanwhile, is hoping that her peripatetic father will return to his family, and she's developing her own interest in one of the bad boys, handsome Gary Geary. The story offers some compelling elements: the depiction of a friendship's changing state is sympathetic yet honest, Lucy's wishful thinking about her father's return is touchingly naïve, and it's refreshing to see a friendship (and maybe romance) between a good girl and a perceived-to-be-bad boy without implications of cheap thrills for the one or reformation for the other. There's little shape to the account, however, since Lucy simply relates what happens during the year (and it's not clear why the story has to be set in the 1970s), and the narration is paced steadily but not swiftly. It's nonetheless a year of some poignant occurrences, chronicled with smooth and thoughtful style, and readers will sympathize with Lucy's struggles.