Destination Anywhere

Gr 9 Up–Making friends has never been easy for white 17-year-old Peyton. After years of being bullied, she’s more than happy to reinvent herself in college. She latches on to a group of peers, desperate to become one of them. After a disastrous night, Peyton realizes that her life is spinning out of control and decides to escape. She drops out of school, packs a backpack, and boards a plane from the U.K. to Canada without much of a plan. Peyton wants to figure out who she is—by herself. She meets a group of people in a hostel, but she’s so beat down by previous drama that she doesn’t trust her gut to travel with them at first. Alternating between the past and the present, Barnard weaves Peyton’s story together. In the time line from the past, Peyton’s story unravels—her desperation to have friends, her experiments with drugs, her meaningless sexual relationship with her boyfriend, and her sense of worthlessness. In the present-day time line, Peyton learns to trust herself and others, and slowly find her purpose. She finds friends from different backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations, who encourage her to examine her past and discover herself, including her goal of becoming an illustrator. With strong characters against the vivid landscape of Canada, Peyton’s physical and emotional journeys will be relatable to teens.