Synopses & Reviews
"Did Mama sing every day?" Caleb asks his sister Anna. "Every-single-day," she answers. "Papa sang, too."Their mother died after Caleb was born. Their house on the prairie is quiet now, and Papa doesn't sing anymore. Then Papa puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife, and he receives a letter from one Sara Elisabeth Wheaton, of Maine. Papa, Ana, and Caleb write back. Caleb asks if she sings.
Sarah desides to come for a month. She writes Papa: I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall, and Tell them I sing. Anna and Caleb wait and wonder. Will Sarah be nice? Will she like them? Will she stay?
Winner, 1986 Newbery Medal1986 Christopher Award
1986 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Children
1986 Golden Kite Award for Fiction (SCBW)
Notable Children's Book of 1985 (ALA)
1985 Children's Editors' Choices (BL)
Best Books of 1985 (SLJ)
Children's Choices for 1986 (IRA/CBC)
Outstanding Children's Books of 1985 (N.Y. Times Book Review)
International Board of Books for Young People Honor List for Writing, 1988
1986 Notable Trade Book in the Language Arts (NCTE)
1986 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
1985 Books for Children (Library of Congress)
1988 Garden State Children's Book Award (New Jersey)
1988 Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award (Arkansas)
100 Favorite Paperbacks 1989 (IRA/CBC)
Best of the 80's (BL)
1986 Christopher Award
1986 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Children
1986 Golden Kite Award for Fiction (SCBW)
Notable Children's Books of 1985 (ALA)
1985 Children's Editors' Choices (BL)
Best Books of 1985 (SLJ)
Children's Choices for 1986 (IRA/CBC)
Outstanding Children's Books of 1985 (NYTBR)
1986 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
1985 Children's Books (Library of Congress)
1988 Garden State Children's Book Award (New Jersey Library Association)
1988 Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award (Arkansas)
100 Favorite Paperbacks of 1989 (IRA/CBC)
Best of the '80s (BL)
1986 Notable Children's Trade Books in the Language Arts (NCTE)
1988 Choices (Association of Booksellers for Children)
1988 International Borad of Books for Young People Honor List for Writing
1986 Jefferson Cup Award (Virginia Library Association)
Synopsis
"Did Mama sing every day?"
Caleb asks his sister Anna.
"Every-single-day," she answers.
"Papa sang, too."Their mother died the day after Caleb was born. Their house on the prairie is quiet now, and Papa doesn't sing anymore. Then Papa puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife, and he receives a letter from one Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, of Maine. Papa, Anna, and Caleb write back. Caleb asks if she sings.
Sarah decides to come for a month. She writes Papa: I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall, and Tell them I sing. Anna and Caleb wait and wonder. Will Sarah be nice? Will she like them? Will she stay?
Synopsis
"Did Mama sing every day?"
Caleb asks his sister Anna.
"Every-single-day," she answers.
"Papa sang, too."
Their mother died the day after Caleb was born. Their house on the prairie is quiet now, and Papa doesn't sing anymore. Then Papa puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife, and he receives a letter from one Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, of Maine. Papa, Anna, and Caleb write back. Caleb asks if she sings. Sarah decides to come for a month. She writes Papa: I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall, and Tell them I sing. Anna and Caleb wait and wonder. Will Sarah be nice? Will she like them? Will she stay?
Synopsis
"Did Mama sing every day?" Caleb asks his sister Anna.
"Every-single-day," she answers. "Papa sang, too."
This Newbery Medal-winning book is the first of five books in Patricia MacLachlan's chapter book series about the Witting family. Set in the late nineteenth century and told from young Anna's point of view, Sarah, Plain and Tall tells the story of how Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton comes from Maine to the prairie to answer Papa's advertisement for a wife and mother. Before Sarah arrives, Anna and her younger brother Caleb wait and wonder. Will Sarah be nice? Will she sing? Will she stay?
This children's literature classic is perfect for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books, historical fiction, and timeless stories using rich and beautiful language. Sarah, Plain and Tall gently explores themes of abandonment, loss and love.
Supports the Common Core State Standards
About the Author
Patricia MacLachlan was born on the prairie, and to this day carries a small bag of prairie dirt with her wherever she goes to remind her of what she knew first. She is the author of many well-loved novels and picture books, including
Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal; its sequels,
Skylarkand
Caleb's Story; and
Three Names, illustrated by Mike Wimmer. She lives in western Massachusetts.
In Her Own Words...
"One thing I've learned with age and parenting is that life comes in circles. Recently, I was having a bad time writing. I felt disconnected. I had moved to a new home and didn't feel grounded. The house, the land was unfamiliar to me. There was no garden yet. Why had I sold my old comfortable 1793 home? The one with the snakes in the basement, mice everywhere, no closets. I would miss the cold winter air that came in through the electrical sockets.
"I had to go this day to talk to a fourth-grade class, and I banged around the house, complaining. Hard to believe, since I am so mild mannered and pleasant, isn't it? What did I have to say to them? I thought what I always think when I enter a room of children. What do I know?
"I plunged down the hillside and into town, where a group of fourth-grade children waited for me in the library, freshly scrubbed, expectant. Should I be surprised that what usually happens did so? We began to talk about place, our living landscapes. And I showed them my little bag of prairie dirt from where I was born. Quite simply, we never got off the subject of place. Should I have been so surprised that these young children were so concerned with place, or with the lack of it, their displacement? Five children were foster children, disconnected from their homes. One little boy's house had burned down, everything gone. "Photographs, too," he said sadly. Another told me that he was moving the next day to place he'd never been. I turned and saw the librarian, tears coming down her face.
"'You know,' I said. "Maybe I should take this bag of prairie dirt and toss it into my new yard. I'll never live on the prairie again. I live here now. The two places could mix together that way!" "No!" cried a boy from the back. "Maybe the prairie dirt will blow away!" And then a little girl raised her hand. "I think you should put that prairie dirt in a glass bowl in your window so that when you write you can see it all the time. So you can always see what you knew first."
"When I left the library, I went home to write. What You Know Firstowes much to the children of the Jackson Street School: the ones who love place and will never leave it, the ones who lost everything and have to begin again. I hope for them life comes in circles, too."