Title: Sarah Plain and Tall
Author: Patricia MacLachlan
Illustrator: Vanessa Julian-Ottie
Publisher & Year of Publication: HarperCollins / 1985
Genre: Historical Fiction
Recommended Audience: Ages 8-11
Summary: In Sarah Plain and Tall, a family of four becomes a family of three after their dies. Jacob, the father, places an ad for a wife and mother. Sarah Elizabeth Wheaton writes him and even plans a visit. She tells him that he will find her because she will be wearing a yellow bonnet and she is plain and tall. They all anxiously wait for her to come and hope immediately that she will stay and join their family. Sarah is from Maine and misses the sea, her brother, and life there, but also loves Jacob, Caleb, and Anna. In the end Sarah decides to stay and marry Jacob.
Evaluation/Reflection: This book would be a good choice for a beginner chapter book, as it is short in length. It is compassionately written and for many appealing for young readers, but possibly not children will have an interest or desire to read of such nature.
Illustrations: This book has few drawings, but also incorporates the power of art within the text. The students could experience drawing with charcoal just as Sarah did, and practice using the colors of the sea (green, blue, and gray) to create their own drawings of the ocean.
Review: A near-perfect miniature novel that fulfills the ideal of different levels of meaning for children and adults. Two children, motherless since the younger one’s birth, are waiting on the prairie for the arrival of their possible new stepmother, who has answered their father’s newspaper advertisement for a wife. Their loneliness and hope are tangibly detailed in expectant preparations for her arrival, among them, several letters, both homely and funny, that are exchanged between the family and Sarah (“I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall”). The simplicity of plot, style, and characterization is deceptive. Sarah proves not only plain and tall but also kind and good, coming like water to three people thirsty for someone caring. Yet Sarah misses her Maine coast, and there are uncomfortable tensions between the children’s well-meaning father and his strong-willed bride-to-be. The dialogue is natural, varied but always vivid, ranging from scenes of soft singing to a romp in the cow pond to a raging storm. When Sarah comes back from town, a trip that the children fear signals her permanent departure, the reader is as deeply moved to happiness as the family itself. “Soon there will be a wedding. Papa says that when the preacher asks if he will have Sarah for his wife he will answer, ‘Ayuh.’” Poignant but never sentimental, this is a worthy successor to Wilder’s Little House books and a prime choice for reading aloud. — Betsy Hearne, Booklist
Promotion Idea: This book would be great to promote when students are learning about pioneer living. A newsletter to students showcasing pioneer facts and a summary of the story could be used to entice students to read the book. This book could also serve as an extension and discuss and learn how the economy during the pioneer days is different from today.
Acquisition: Public library or currently available on Amazon for $14.40 (hardcover).
Author: Patricia MacLachlan
Illustrator: Vanessa Julian-Ottie
Publisher & Year of Publication: HarperCollins / 1985
Genre: Historical Fiction
Recommended Audience: Ages 8-11
Summary: In Sarah Plain and Tall, a family of four becomes a family of three after their dies. Jacob, the father, places an ad for a wife and mother. Sarah Elizabeth Wheaton writes him and even plans a visit. She tells him that he will find her because she will be wearing a yellow bonnet and she is plain and tall. They all anxiously wait for her to come and hope immediately that she will stay and join their family. Sarah is from Maine and misses the sea, her brother, and life there, but also loves Jacob, Caleb, and Anna. In the end Sarah decides to stay and marry Jacob.
Evaluation/Reflection: This book would be a good choice for a beginner chapter book, as it is short in length. It is compassionately written and for many appealing for young readers, but possibly not children will have an interest or desire to read of such nature.
Illustrations: This book has few drawings, but also incorporates the power of art within the text. The students could experience drawing with charcoal just as Sarah did, and practice using the colors of the sea (green, blue, and gray) to create their own drawings of the ocean.
Review: A near-perfect miniature novel that fulfills the ideal of different levels of meaning for children and adults. Two children, motherless since the younger one’s birth, are waiting on the prairie for the arrival of their possible new stepmother, who has answered their father’s newspaper advertisement for a wife. Their loneliness and hope are tangibly detailed in expectant preparations for her arrival, among them, several letters, both homely and funny, that are exchanged between the family and Sarah (“I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall”). The simplicity of plot, style, and characterization is deceptive. Sarah proves not only plain and tall but also kind and good, coming like water to three people thirsty for someone caring. Yet Sarah misses her Maine coast, and there are uncomfortable tensions between the children’s well-meaning father and his strong-willed bride-to-be. The dialogue is natural, varied but always vivid, ranging from scenes of soft singing to a romp in the cow pond to a raging storm. When Sarah comes back from town, a trip that the children fear signals her permanent departure, the reader is as deeply moved to happiness as the family itself. “Soon there will be a wedding. Papa says that when the preacher asks if he will have Sarah for his wife he will answer, ‘Ayuh.’” Poignant but never sentimental, this is a worthy successor to Wilder’s Little House books and a prime choice for reading aloud. — Betsy Hearne, Booklist
Promotion Idea: This book would be great to promote when students are learning about pioneer living. A newsletter to students showcasing pioneer facts and a summary of the story could be used to entice students to read the book. This book could also serve as an extension and discuss and learn how the economy during the pioneer days is different from today.
Acquisition: Public library or currently available on Amazon for $14.40 (hardcover).