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.

Jenny Campbell, recent high school graduate, has spent her unrooted childhood planning for a future she can control: NYU, marketing major, big-city life. But first, a carefully mapped solo backpacking trip through Europe. 

Only, the trip doesn’t stay on the map. As she travels between countries and memories, Jenny begins to loosen her grip on the life she’s scripted. She works at a bookshop in Greece, treks through the Balkans on overnight trains, falls in something-like-love in Rome.  

At summer’s end, Jenny returns to the States ready to launch her New York City future. And then, she learns she’s pregnant. Choosing to end her pregnancy, Jenny tries to keep her plans—but finds she may no longer be the person meant to live them. 

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 story.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection