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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Most of this elegantly designed novel is set on the ocean. The story features two 13‑year‑old cousins, Sophie and Cody, who sail with three uncles and another cousin across the sea to visit Bompie (their grandfather) in England. The alternating voices of Sophie and Cody’s travel logs move the 78‑chapter story quickly. As the novel unfolds, Sophie makes more than one perilous journey. In his own way, so does Cody, and the trip’s dangers change each teenager. Sharon Creech telegraphs her theme while spinning her tale, so that younger, thoughtful readers won’t miss the internal journeys even while the waves are high. Devotees of Creech’s Newbery Award winner Walk Two Moons (HarperCollins, 1994) will be pleased that there’s a new book by this popular author, and that it explores similar thematic territory at an easier level and in a new way. Diaz’s black-and-white artwork decorates the first pages of each chapter. (Ages 11‑14)

CCBC Choices 2001 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2001. Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from April 1, 2002
In a starred review of this Newbery Honor book, PW
wrote, "Like Walk Two Moons, this intimate novel poetically connects journey with self-discovery. Creech once again captures the ebb and flow of a vulnerable teen's emotional life, in this enticing blend of adventure and reflection." Ages 8-12.

From Horn Book

July 1, 2000
Sophie is determined to join her three uncles and two (boy) cousins on their transatlantic sail to England, home of her beloved grandfather Bompie. Told through the pages of Sophie's journal, the novel is rather too obviously a voyage of self-discovery. What works best is the protean nature of Sophie's relationships with her uncles and cousins, all of whom have some self-discoveries to make of their own.

(Copyright 2000 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from April 3, 2000
Like Creech's Walk Two Moons and Chasing Redbird, this intimate novel poetically connects journey with self-discovery. When 13-year-old Sophie learns that her three uncles and two male cousins plan to sail across the Atlantic to visit the uncles' father, Bompie, in England, she begs to go along. Despite her mother's protests and the men's misgivings, Sophie joins the "motley" crew of the 45-foot The Wanderer and soon proves herself a worthy sailor. The novel unfolds through travel logs, predominantly penned by Sophie (with intermittent musings from her clownish cousin, Cody) that trace each leg of the eventful voyage; each opens with a handsome woodblock-like print by Diaz (Smoky Night). The teens' insightful observations reveal the frailties of both the boat and its six passengers, whose fears and regrets anchor them down. Sophie, who was adopted just three years ago, proves the most complicated and mysterious of all the characters; her ambivalent feelings about the sea ("The sea, the sea, the sea. It rolled and rolled and called to me... but some said I was too young and the sea was a dangerous temptress...") correlate to a repressed memory of a tragic accident. Stories Sophie tells about Bompie, as well as clever throwaway bits (such as the brothers' given names: Ulysses, Jonah and Moses), temper the novel's more serious undercurrents. Creech once again captures the ebb and flow of a vulnerable teen's emotional life, in this enticing blend of adventure and reflection. Ages 8-12.

From School Library Journal

Starred review from April 1, 2000
Gr 5-9-Thirteen-year-old Sophie, her two cousins, and her three uncles sail across the Atlantic Ocean to England in a 45-foot sailboat, fulfilling the men's lifelong dream. The trip is also a perfect opportunity to visit the ailing patriarch of the family, Bompie, who recently left the U.S. and returned to his birthplace. Sophie conveys her fascination with the sea in journal entries and retells many of Bompie's stories. Cousin Cody, also 13, keeps his own journal and it is through his entries that readers learn that Sophie's view of things is not always reliable and that she does not always tell the truth. Sophie is actually adopted and has never met Bompie. What happened to her birth parents? Why does she pretend her adopted family is her only family? And why does she pretend to know a man she has never met? These questions will keep readers motivated to discover the answers to the girl's secrets. During the journey, the shipmates endure a dangerous storm that reveals truths about each of them and allows Sophie to face the truth. The first-person immediacy and episodic nature of the narratives allow for piecemeal but intimate revelation of character. The story is exciting, funny, and brimming with life. For each crew member, there is a conscious journey to Bompie across the sea, and an unconscious one of self-discovery. This is a beautifully written and imaginatively constructed novel that speaks to the power of survival and the delicacy of grief.-Katie O'Dell, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

Copyright 2000 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Booklist

Starred review from April 1, 2000
Gr. 6^-8. Thirteen-year-old Sophie begs her way aboard a sailboat trip from Connecticut to England, accompanied by her adoptive mother's three brothers and two nephews. Along the way, the close relatives endure close quarters, destructive storms, and the fear that they will not make it to shore. Meanwhile, they come to know each other better and respect each other more. Written with grace, subtlety, and wit, the story unfolds as a series of journal entries by Sophie and her cousin Cody. The apparent openness of Sophie's writing, and the fact that the first four chapters offer her point of view alone, leads readers into an acceptance of her narrative truth. In a shift more poignant than ironic, the reader discovers another layer of reality when Cody reflects on aspects of Sophie's life that the uncles won't discuss (the circumstances surrounding her parents' death) and that she doesn't record in her journal (the fact that she was an orphan, adopted into the family only three years before). Little by little, Sophie begins to remember and acknowledge the parts of her past too painful to deal with before. Presented directly, the weight and force of such revelations might have swamped the novel, but here, handled obliquely, they simply lift and carry the whole story further along. David Diaz contributes a series of small ink drawings as handsome chapter headings that add pleasure to this memorable voyage of discovery. ((Reviewed April 1, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)

From AudioFile Magazine

Sophie is eager to set sail on THE WANDERER--the only girl in a crew of six. She and her uncles and cousins, Brian and Cody, are heading for England to visit her grandfather. The listener quickly realizes that there are hidden issues in this family, which are slowly disclosed in alternating logs of the trip kept by Sophie and Cody. Dana Lubotsky and John Beach are just right as Sophie and Cody, making the audio edition easier to follow than the print edition. Their voices are young, fresh, and believable, perfectly capturing two 13-year-olds attempting to find clear sailing in a tempest-tossed adult world. S.G. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine