Featured Review

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Patricia MacLachlan (J Fiction)

Sarah Wheaton is from Maine and loves the sea. She can braid hair, make stew, and bake bread, but would rather paint and build bookshelves. Her favorite colors are the colors of the sea: blue, gray, and green. She can keep a fire going at night, has a cat named Seal, and isn’t quite sure if she snores or not. Perhaps the most important thing to know about Sarah is that she’s traveling to the prairie to be a wife to Jacob Witting and a mother to his two children: Anna and Caleb. She’s coming and the children are hoping beyond hope that she won’t leave like their mother did so many years ago when she died soon after childbirth. Is it possible for Sarah—who loves the sea—to be happy with fields and grass and sky and nothing else? Can she make a home without her beloved blue and gray and green? After thirty days, they’ll know for sure.

Sarah, Plain and Tall is the first in a five-book series by Patricia MacLachlan and is one of the shortest books to ever win the Newbery Medal, which was awarded to MacLachlan in 1986. Based on a true story about the author’s ancestors, the book tells the story of an independent and stubborn woman from Maine who enters the home and lives of the Wittings. While the family introduces Sarah to haystacks, cow ponds, and lambs, she shares strange shells, tales of the sea, and a new word from Maine: ayuh meaning yes. Between her naiveté about farm life (she names the sheep and chickens) and her audacity to swim in the cow pond and wear overalls (have you ever heard of such a thing?), Sarah charms everyone around her and begins to heal a broken family.

MacLachlan takes readers back to the late 1800s with a timeless story about home and family set during a time when life was simple, struggles were many, and family meant everything. Through kindness, patience, and love, a plain and tall woman from Maine made the Witting’s house a home again by filling it with songs and treasures from the sea. So, was it possible for Sarah to be happy surrounded by fields and grass and sky and nothing else? Ayuh.

Rating: 5/5

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