Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Written by Patricia MacLachlan

Grades: 1-5

Awards:

• Newbery Medal (1986), 
• Scott O'Dell Award (1986), 
• Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award Nominee (1988), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (1987), 
• Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award (1987)
• The Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Honor (1986)

Sarah, Plain and Tall is about a Jacob Witting and his family who live on the Prairie. They need of a mother. Anna and Caleb want a new mother who can make their father sing again. He quit singing when their mother died after Caleb was born. Jacob tells them he has written to Sarah who is in need of a new home for her and her cat, Seal. She will come for one month to see if she fits in. When she arrives from Maine the children want her to stay and like it there. Caleb talks to her nonstop. She misses the sea a lot and does drawings of it but, is missing colors. Neighbors come by and Sarah meets Maggie who is a mail order bride from Tennessee. Maggie encourages Sarah to learn to drive the team of horses and gives her plants to start a garden. When Sarah learns to drive the wagon she decides to go into town. This worries everyone. They do not know if she will come back to the farm or go back east. She does come back to the farm. Sarah has the missing colors for the sea pictures. She also tells them she would miss them more than she misses the sea if she left. Jacob and Sarah do get married and they become a family. 

This can be used in the classroom to teach the students about life on the prairie. It can also be used to compare and contrast the difference between the east coast of the United States and the people living in the west.