In a novel, one of the ways to show growth or character development is to show different responses to similar situations. Peck establishes these changes in Drew and Stephanie Wingate by showing the reader how they respond to their mother and friends at home in suburban Chicago and then contrasts these responses to those at sea with Connie Carlson, their grandmother, and the friends they acquire on the Regal Voyager. At home, Stephanie talks constantly to her friend Gillian Bergner, plays her music and VCR, and only steps outside to go to the mall.

Anger and rage are Stephanie's allies in controlling her mother and her brother.

For this fourteen-year-old, being free means being obnoxious.

Drew, the main character and narrator of the novel, is a fifteen-year-old who celebrates his sixteenth birthday on the ship. At home he is a kind boy who misses...