[1] The semi-autobiographical coming of age story of Frances Stuart, a sensitive, imaginative child and "army brat" whose life is disrupted by her family's moves from Arizona to Germany and England.

As a second grader in a nun-taught parochial school she is instill with dread of sin and retribution, and as she grows she continues to be tormented by self-judgment and discomfort in regard to her sexuality.

Barbara A. Bannon in Publishers Weekly, noting McKillip's status as "[a]n author of outstanding books for younger readers," calls this, "her first novel for adults, a real spellbinder."

"[2] Charles Champlin in the Los Angeles Times finds the book "rich, particular and extremely appealing," characterizing it as "a beautifully written, honest, frequently funny and self-unsparing chronicle ... of the growing up of a young woman who cannot be different, in any significant spiritual way, from McKillip herself.

In its unassertive intimacy and fragility--and despite its rare literary grace--"Stepping From the Shadows" seems a small publishing miracle, whose appearance on the spring list means that an editor loved it, not that anyone thought it would make a dime.