Outside Reading: When We Were Saints - Laura Ramey

Over the summer I read this amazing novel by Han Nolan titled When We Were Saints. It was an inspiring story about a little boy and little girl who decide to live as Jesus did. They climb to the top of a large hill behind the boys family farm and pray for hours a day. They eat only things from the land: no meat or animal products. They give up all material possessions and the boy doesn't even visit his grandmother when she's in the hospital, begging for him to come. The young teenagers end up taking a road trip and even though the boy is only 13, take his deceased grandfathers truck and drive from the countryside of Virginia to New York City. They don't sleep for the entire ride, the boy just listens to the girl hum while praying. They get to the Cloisters, a religious museum, and start making their way though the exhibits. They live in the museum after hours and hardly eat the whole time. Though out the journey, Archie, the boy, realizes that he has gotten closer to God, but when Claire, the girl, shows signs of undergoing a stigmata, brandishing the crucifix wounds of Jesus, Archie realizes that he will never be as close to God as her and wants to go home to be with his grandmother. The story was amazing. The willpower that Claire had to go for so long with no food was amazing. She thought that as long as she had God on her mind and was constantly thanking him for everything in her life, she would be safe. You should definitely pick it up.