May 2026 Book Club Recommendations

Questions Just for Fun

If you could be friends with any fictional character, who would you choose and what would you do together with them?

If you could bookwander, which book would you choose to wander in and why?

Questions to Think Critically and Biblically

Anne Shirley is shocked when she learns that Oskar’s parents are divorced, and Tilly’s parents were never married. However, Tillly informs her, “All this is more common where we’re from. Lots of people’s parents aren’t married. It's just the way things are sometimes. There are lots of different-shaped families.” Tilly is correct that parents who divorce or who were never married are common in our world. However, what is God’s design for the family?
Discussion Guide - Read Genesis 2:23-24 and Matthew 19:3-9. Discuss how God’s design is for a man and woman to enter into the marriage covenant before they become one flesh and bring children into the world. Tilly is correct that divorce and unmarried parents are how things are right now, but this is not God’s good design.

Throughout the story, Tilly longs to know her parents. The author describes her as having “cracks in her heart” because she has never known them. According to the biblical worldview, why do humans long to know their parents and to be known by them?
Discussion Guide - Read Galatians 4:4-7 and Romans 8:15-17. Discuss how the parental role is a picture of God as our Heavenly Father. We were ultimately designed to long for and find our fullness in God. The longing every child has for their parents was created to point us to God.

At the end of the story, we learn that Enoch Chalk was seeking to take over the underlibrary because he didn’t want to be doomed to the fate the author of his book wrote for him. As Christians, we know that God is writing the story of human history. However, how is God’s role in human history similar to or different from the role of a human author in his or her story?
Discussion Guide - Read Isaiah 45:7-9. Discuss how God is sovereign. Like the author of a book, God has control over the course of history. Read Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Discuss how, unlike the author of a book, God gives his people choice. They can choose to follow him or to rebel.

Bonus Question - If you have gone through Foundation Comparative Worldview Curriculum, say, “Toward the end of the book, Enoch Chalk questions who it is that should actually be able to create the rules.” If Tilly came from a Postmodern worldview, how would she have answered Mr. Chalk’s question?
Discussion Guide - Discuss how Tilly would have said that there is no such thing as true right and wrong, but that each community decides what is right and wrong for themselves.

Questions Just for Fun

If you were Laura, what would be your favorite thing about living on the prairie?

Questions to Think Critically and Biblicall

How do you see God’s design for the family in this story?
Discussion Guide - Read Genesis 2:22-24. Discuss how God designed one man and one woman to come together to start a family. We see the goodness of this design in how Pa and Ma worked together to build the house and care for Mary, Laura, and Carrie. We also see this design in how Mary and Laura helped their parents and cared for Carrie.

As Laura’s family settled on the prairie, they used many of the resources available there to help build their home. What things did they use, and how does this follow God’s design?
Discussion Guide - Discuss how they used trees to build their home and stable. They used water from the creek to wash and drink. They made jackrabbit stew from the rabbits Pa hunted. Read Genesis 1:28. Discuss how God has given humans the responsibility of caring for creation and using it to the best of our ability.

Bonus Question - If you have taken the children in your care through Foundation God’s Good Design Curriculum, ask, “What different types of love that God designed do we see in this book?”
Discussion Guide - Review the three different types of love presented in Unit 3, Lesson 3: friendship love, marriage love, and family love. Review the verses covered and games played in each lesson. Then discuss the marriage love demonstrated by Pa and Ma, the family love demonstrated by Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura, and Carrie, and the friendship love demonstrated by Mr. Edwards and the Ingalls family.