Augustine: The Boy Who Asked Big Questions (Our Friends the Saints)

What if one of the Church’s greatest saints started out as a boy who made mistakes, followed the wrong crowd, questioned almost everything—and spent years searching for happiness in all the wrong places?

Before Saint Augustine became a bishop and Doctor of the Church, he was a brilliant, competitive, restless boy with a talent for getting into trouble and a mind full of questions. He wanted friendship, success, excitement, and answers about God and the world—but the more he searched, the more restless he became.

From the famous night he stole pears with his friends to his adventures across the Roman world, Augustine’s remarkable true story introduces young readers to a saint who did not become holy overnight. Along the way, they will meet his determined mother, Saint Monica, discover how Saint Ambrose helped challenge his ideas, and follow Augustine through friendship, loss, wrong turns, and the unforgettable moment that finally changed the direction of his life.

Written especially for Catholic children ages 9–12, this engaging biography presents Augustine as he really was: intelligent, imperfect, curious, sometimes stubborn, and always searching.

Introduces Saint Augustine through an exciting, age-appropriate true story rather than a textbook-style biography. Shows children that asking difficult questions about God and faith can be part of an honest search for truth. Explores friendship, peer pressure, mistakes, forgiveness, perseverance, and conversion in ways young readers can understand. Brings Saint Monica, Saint Ambrose, and the early Church to life while remaining firmly rooted in Catholic faith and history. Includes a saint profile, timeline, original prayer, and discussion and reflection questions for families, schools, and parish groups. Perfect for Catholic families, homeschoolers, Catholic schools, religious education programs, and independent readers , Saint Augustine: The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Searching shows children that saints are not people who never struggled or made mistakes.

They are people who kept allowing God to lead them home.