Otto, who currently sells books at the Chinook Bookshop, is the author of 12 books. Pioneer Church , which took eight years to complete, due to the complexity of the oil paintings which illustrate it, is a graceful evocation of Americana, explaining time and passing history by focusing on one building, a Pennsylvania church. With clear, steady diction and focus, Otto describes how early frontiersmen first built a log church atop a hill, then how it became the center of a growing community. Church members marry, have babies, grow old and die. The cemetery marks their coming and passing.
Seasons pass, a town emerges, times change, war erupts.
Eventually, the log church burns down, to be replaced by a sturdier brick building, and that building, too, eventually, falls close to ruin, but happily is reclaimed by the people of the community. The illustrator of the book, Megan Lloyd, helped to restore Old Zion Church in Brickerville, Penn. She called on her friend, Carolyn Otto, to write the story, and the result is one of the finest children's books of the year, suitable for readers of all ages. Pioneer Church offers a lasting lesson in the history of the man-made world, reminding us that behind each building are the lives of people who struggled to put it there, who spent time there, and who died while the bulding still stood. Historic preservation and restoration become notions as natural as breathing, when they are presented in such a simple and compelling format.