Image courtesy of Christianity Today
Happy 2025. It was nine years ago this month that I started this project (and this blog). And it’s past time for an update on several developments with the reception of the book since the middle of last November.
On November 20, 2024, the magazine Christianity Today published a review of A Prairie Faith. It was written by Monika B. Hilder, a professor of English at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. (The school has no connection with Trinity Christian College where I teach.) She has written multiple books and articles about C. S. Lewis and his works, and apparently she has long appreciated the Little House books. Titled “The Quiet Faith Behind Little House on the Prairie,” the review was overwhelmingly positive. I think that Dr. Hilder really understood a lot of what I was trying to do in the book, and for that I am very thankful. A friend of mine asked me if the book got a bump in sales as a result of the review; according to Wikipedia, Christianity Today has a circulation of over 100,000 in print and over 2 million digital subscribers. He told me to check my Amazon best sellers rank. Sure enough, for a week or two, the book was under #50,000. It’s back over #500,000 now. I’ll find out how sales are going when I get a royalty report later this spring.
I also discovered that the book has been reviewed in the Annals of Iowa. It is in the volume 83, number 3, summer 2024 issue. Sarah Uthoff, an Iowa librarian and a good friend wrote it. Sarah’s Trundlebed Tales website is a multi-media collection of materials about “Laura Ingalls Wilder, one-room schools, historic foodways, and living history.” This review was also quite positive, and I appreciate her careful reading and her kind words. I have written book reviews for the Annals in the past, so it was great to see my book reviewed in it.
Iowa will also be the site of my next speaking engagement—online Iowa. I will be speaking at an Iowa History 101 event on April 10 at noon. Iowa History 101 is a zoom meeting which was started by the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) during covid and which has continued ever since. The twice-monthly meetings address all kinds of different Iowa history topics. I will be talking about Laura’s faith and also doing a quick dive into the Ingalls family’s brief sojourn in Burr Oak, Iowa, in late 1876 and early 1877. There are some great stories about their time there in Pioneer Girl, but she left it completely out of the Little House books. I would love to see you in the zoom and chat! The link to register for my talk is below.
This is the end of week four of Trinity’s spring semester (we started the Monday after New Year’s Day), and my classes are going well so far. I am teaching a Thinking and Writing course about Communities and a Foundations Course about vocation. It was bitter cold in Chicago last week, but today it is in the thirties (and raining).
If you’re interested in having me speak, please let me know (john.fry@trnty.edu). Thanks again for your all your support!
Links
Christianity Today Review – this is normally behind a paywall, but you may be able to read the entire review if you don’t go there often; I think they’ll let you read a couple pieces before asking you to subscribe.
Monika B. Hilder’s page at Trinity Western University
Annals Volume 83, Number 3, Summer 2024 – If your local library doesn’t have a copy, I think that you can order one from the State Historical Society of Iowa.
Iowa History 101 and my upcoming talk on April 10 (includes registration)
The Faith of Laura Ingalls Wilder 