Sneak peek!
Dear Jacob is coming out in paperback on January 14th
It’s been over a year now since Dear Jacob was published on October 17, 2023. During that time, Patty and I have made over 50 appearances together, sharing this story all over the state of Minnesota, as well as a few national appearances.
Now, Minnesota Historical Society Press is reaching out to an even larger audience with a new paperback version of the book. In addition to the redesigned cover, there’s also a new afterword written by me. It gives a raw, behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it took to write this book together, and the amazing friendship we developed along the way.
Here’s the official press release from our publisher, Minnesota Historical Society Press, followed by an excerpt from the new afterword.
Coming Soon in Paperback, Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope
Bestselling book by Patty Wetterling with Joy Baker is now available for preorder as paperback
ST. PAUL (Nov. 14, 2024)—Tens of thousands of readers embraced Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope, first published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in hardcover in 2023. On Jan. 14, the paperback edition, featuring a new afterword and cover, spreads its powerful message even further. The paperback is now available for preorder.
A Parent’s Worst Nightmare, 27 Years Waiting for an Answer
In 1989, eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped not far from his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The community quickly rallied around the family, and Patty Wetterling, Jacob’s mother, stepped into the spotlight.
Punctuated by Wetterling’s letters to her missing son, Dear Jacob brings readers into the heartbreak of a parent’s worst nightmare. It also describes the development of an unexpected friendship with an inquisitive blogger, Joy Baker, whose deft research uncovered clues that ultimately led to the conclusion of the twenty-seven-year-long missing persons case.
As the criminal investigation into Jacob’s disappearance stretched from weeks to months to years, Wetterling devoted herself to advocating for children. She successfully lobbied for the passage of the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Act, which established sex offender registries. She served on the board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for over twenty years and became a nationally respected authority on child protection.
Co-written with Baker, this memoir chronicles both a personal and a collective story of contemporary history, one that permanently changed public policy and the way we parent our children. It also shows that communities can heal after tragedy, and that families can still experience love, joy, happiness, and hope.
Wetterling is a national advocate, visionary, and educator on the prevention of child abduction and exploitation. Baker works as an independent marketing consultant, writer, and blogger.
Available January 14, 2025
Memoir / True Crime, 354 pages, 6 x 9, 24 b&w images, new afterword
Paperback, $22.95, ISBN: 978-1-68134-314-3
e-Book, $12.99, ISBN: 978-1-68134-318-1
Excerpt from the new Afterword
By Joy Baker
Sometimes a person comes into your life for reasons you can’t possibly un-derstand. When Patty and I first started working on this book, Jacob was still missing. We thought we were working on a legacy piece that would bring attention to his case, highlight Patty’s advocacy work, and serve as a spark of hope for other families of missing children. We were wrong. It became so much more.
As we worked on those early pages together, we couldn’t possibly have known what was in store for us or what our friendship would have to endure. To see it through would mean going there together—through the darkness, the sadness, and the unfathomable grief. Could we even do it? Would people be receptive to it? Would our friendship survive it?
It has been a remarkable journey.
At that charity gala in 2013 when Patty and I first met, I was forty-six; she was sixty-five. I had just given up my dream of starting a new writing career and gone back to working full-time at what I knew—marketing. Patty was a well-known keynote speaker, a child safety advocate, a national figure in Washington, DC, and probably the most famous Minnesotan I’d ever met. She just oozed drive and purpose. Like everyone else at the gala, I was blown away by her powerful message of hope and her belief in the overall goodness of humankind.
So I was more than a little nervous about approaching Patty that evening and introducing myself as the blogger who had been writing about her missing son for the past two months. Did she know who I was? Had she been following my blog? Was I making a difference? I was desperately trying to figure out my own purpose in life and hoped maybe this was it. By writing about Jacob’s case and asking people to “think Jacob” with me, maybe I could somehow create change.
It didn’t go as expected. Patty saw my writing less as “making a difference” and more “like stalking or something.”
Pre-order the new paperback version of Dear Jacob now, available on January 14, 2025!
Thanksgiving gratitude
By Patty Wetterling
I love Thanksgiving. I always have.
For me, Thanksgiving is a time to really reflect on the things that one is grateful for: Simple things we often take for granted. Friends who have always been there. Food to fill our bellies. A warm house to shelter us and offer comfort. Relatives we love but don’t see every day.
When we were first married, Jerry and I didn’t have the funds to make it home from Arlington, Virginia for the big family gathering on Thanksgiving. Jerry was working for the National Jogging Association and one of their original members invited us to his apartment for dinner. This man was 91 years old and still jogged every day — up and down the hallway in his building — then went off to work at his flower shop. Lucky for us, he also loved to cook! I really didn’t know what to expect, but I packed up a loaf of homemade pumpkin bread, and we headed over there.
The housekeeper helped lift the turkey in and out of the oven, but other than that, this amazing and generous 91-year-old man put together a fabulous traditional Thanksgiving dinner for us that day, enriched by so many entertaining stories he shared with us about his very full life. We were so grateful.
There would be a few more Thanksgivings when Jerry and I weren’t able to be together with family, so — living by example — we always made a point of inviting other stranded friends to fill our table with good food, laughter, and friendship.
Our more typical tradition involves a large family gathering. The host family supplies the turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes, but almost everything else is brought by visiting family members: green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, garden salad, homemade butterhorn rolls, cranberry salad, pie and ice cream are standard offerings.
It truly is a feast of love. Honoring our traditions, we pray for those who don’t have a Thanksgiving dinner on their tables, we acknowledge relatives who couldn’t attend, we appreciate those who made the trip to get there, we Facetime those who were unable to join us in person, and, right before we eat, we all hold hands and sing “Johnny Appleseed.”
Oh the Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
The sun, the rain and the apple seed,
The Lord is good to me.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Dig In!
One more tradition that’s always surprise to the spouses who have married into our goofy family is our annual “after dinner walk.” While many of them would rather curl up on the couch for a nap, instead we don our boots, jackets, hats, and scarves then head out for a good brisk walk to burn off some of those extra carbs and calories we just consumed. “Come on!” we nudge and encourage. “It’s tradition!”
Thanksgiving always makes me cry a little bit, but in a good way. In spite of all the difficulties each of us has faced—grief, loss, struggles, unmet hopes and dreams—we still have been blessed with so much. Good food, good friends and family, good health and good fortune. There are many days when I take these things for granted, but not on Thanksgiving. Whatever is going on in our lives, there are always many things to be thankful for. Take the time. Name them.
This Thanksgiving Day, let’s all honor thankfulness, remember not to take anything or anyone for granted, share what we can with others, and spread good cheer.
Thanksgiving also ushers in the holiday season of light. No matter what faith you hold in your heart, let us each light a candle to reflect and brighten the world with good wishes. It feels like the world really needs this right now.
Wishing you all the best!
Love, Patty
Audiobook
People often ask us if there’s an audiobook version of Dear Jacob and the answer is, yes! It was published by Dreamscape Media at the same time the hard cover was released last year. It’s narrated by Rebecca Stern who does an amazing job voicing this emotional story.
The audiobook is also being updated with the new cover art and afterword —which is read by Joy in her own voice.
You can find the audio version of Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope on all the major audio platforms, including Audible, Audiobooks.com, Apple Books.com, Hoopla, Libby, Libro.fm, Google Play Books, and Everand. If you’re interested in listening to a sample of Dear Jacob, click the following link.
https://www.audiobooks.com/book/stream/717092
Book Clubs
We are visiting book clubs and discussing Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope on Zoom! In return, we ask that your book club make a donation of any amount to the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. Message us for details. We look forward to sharing Dear Jacob with you!
Rankings and reviews
If you enjoyed reading Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope, please give it a positive rating and leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or wherever you purchased your book. We love reading your reviews!
Ask for Dear Jacob at your local library
We love libraries, and would especially love if every library in America had a copy of Dear Jacob on its shelves. Many times there’s an online form you can fill out to request a specific book, but of course it’s just as simple to pick up the phone and call your friendly librarian. Thank you for your supporting your local library!
Follow Joy at JoyTheCurious.com
If you’re not already following Joy’s Substack, you can find her at JoyTheCurious.com. Check out her latest story called “Sentenced to College: The Angel Hernandez Story.”
Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope was released on October 17th, 2023 by MNHS Press. You can purchase it at your favorite bookseller, or ask for it at your local library.
 | A guest post by
|