The Calling

The story of an ardent young heroine's first spiritual journey—told with warmth and humor.During the annual family reunion and pie competition at Beulah Land Healing and Holiness Church, twelve-year-old Esther Lea Ridley is suddenly drenched by a baptism of fire. She knows just what it means: "Esta Lea," she says to herself, "you are called to the Lord." That day marks the beginning of a healing crusade from church to church, and revival tent to revival tent, in the sleepy backwater towns of South Carolina. Travelling with her boy-crazy sister, Sarah Louise, and her uncle Peter Earl—who has been very RECENTLY saved—Esta Lea shares her new gift with the needy and not so needy. It isn't, however, until she confronts her own dreams of glory that she learns to use the calling for those she truly loves. THE CALLING is a brilliant, bold, and hilarious first novel from an exceptional new talent in middle-grade fiction.