Illinois Authors

B&H Kids 2023

Christianity Today 2024 Book Awards, Young Adults category, Finalist Home isn’t always what we dream it will be. Eleven-year-old Sierra just wants a normal life. After her military mother returns from the war overseas, the two hop from home to homelessness while Sierra tries to help her mom through the throes of PTSD. When they end up at a shelter for women and children, Sierra is even more aware of what her life is not. The kind couple who run the shelter, Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin, attempt to show her parental love as she faces the uncertainties of her mom’s emotional health and the challenges of being the brand-new poor kid in middle school. The longer she stays at the shelter, the more Sierra realizes she may have to face an impossible choice as she redefines home. This middle-grade novel offers a compassionate look at poverty, homelessness, and hope. Readers walk alongside brave Sierra as she holds on to a promise she believes God gave her: that one day she will have a real home. But what if that promise looks far different than she has ever dreamed?

Kregel Publications 2022

2023 Christy Award Winner--Best First Novel ”[A] touching debut. . . . MacKillop takes the pain of aging and regret and infuses it with soul and a touch of humor. This auspicious first outing tugs at the heartstrings.”―Publishers Weekly Eva wants to run away from her life--if only she could remember how Failing memory has forced Eva Gordon to move in with her granddaughter, Breezy. But Eva hates the bustle of Boston. All she wants to do is move back to her quiet, cozy Cape Cod home and be left alone. Then Breezy announces she's getting married, and they'll be moving to her new husband's rundown family farm, where he lives with an elderly uncle. They'll be one big family--but only Breezy and Brent think it'll be a happy one. It's all too much for Eva. Too much change, too much togetherness, too much of an over-crowded life she never wanted. But as her desire for privacy collides with her worsening memory, Eva may find herself in a pickle she can't get out of.