Calling Me Home

By: Laurin Becker Macios

Published by Holiday House, 2026-05-19

A beautifully crafted YA novel in verse that follows a 17-year-old girl's backpacking trip across Europe--filled with awe, danger, friendships, and something like love. High school graduate Jenny Campbell's nomadic life has led her to be a planner--combating constant change by being her own reliable constant. During a solo summer backpacking trip that takes her from the smooth steps of Westminster Abbey to the curving streets of Santorini, she begins to embrace chance. Maybe even romance. But when she returns home, on the cusp of fulfilling her ultimate plan--moving to New York City--she learns she's pregnant. Choosing to end her pregnancy, she steps onward into her hallowed plans--but finds she may no longer be the girl who's meant to live them. Based on author-poet Laurin Becker Macios's own experiences, Calling Me Home is part classic travel bildungsroman (you can almost taste the ouzo in Greece and feel the wind of Ireland) and part meditation on how abortion is just one piece of a person's ever-changing identity and future.