Monday, September 20, 2021

Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard - OPTIONAL


Destination Anywhere
by Sara Barnard
, 312 pages. Macmillan Children’s Books (Simon & Schuster), 2021. $20.

Language: R (121 swears, 50 “f”); Mature Content: R; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Canada is a long way from England, which is exactly what Peyton wanted. This is where she will prove to the world that she can be independent. When reality turns out to be different from her expectations, Peyton must adjust the way she views other people -- and herself.

While I was initially impatient with the jumps between the present and “before,” Barnard crafted Peyton’s story so well that I was brought to tears with her at the most vulnerable part of her journey. Fear, loneliness, and discovering the meaning of friendship are talked about so sincerely that simple statements feel profound; that rawness was not what I expected from an adventure story. Also, Peyton’s story is punctuated with the occasional illustration from her sketchbook, which was a fun addition. The mature content rating is for underage drinking, drug use, innuendo, groping, partial nudity, crude language, manual sex (descriptive in a more explanatory way and not a graphic way), and vaginal sex (also not graphic).

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

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