Sarah, Plain and Tall

This beloved 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, and it's a strong choice for independent reading.*Sarah, Plain and Tall*gently explores themes of abandonment, loss, and love.*

Read the rest of the Sarah books by Patricia MacLachlan:*Skylark, Caleb's Story, More Perfect than the Moon, and*Grandfather's Dance.

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Sarah, Plain and Tall

This beloved 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, and it's a strong choice for independent reading.*Sarah, Plain and Tall*gently explores themes of abandonment, loss, and love.*

Read the rest of the Sarah books by Patricia MacLachlan:*Skylark, Caleb's Story, More Perfect than the Moon, and*Grandfather's Dance.

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Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall

by Patricia MacLachlan

Narrated by Glenn Close

Unabridged — 1 hours, 1 minutes

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall

by Patricia MacLachlan

Narrated by Glenn Close

Unabridged — 1 hours, 1 minutes

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A tender story written with gorgeous lyrical prose that will warm the heart of young readers. It’s the story of a new wife and mother and the family she enters into. It won the Newbery for a reason!

This beloved 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, and it's a strong choice for independent reading.*Sarah, Plain and Tall*gently explores themes of abandonment, loss, and love.*

Read the rest of the Sarah books by Patricia MacLachlan:*Skylark, Caleb's Story, More Perfect than the Moon, and*Grandfather's Dance.


Editorial Reviews

New York Times

An exquisite, sometimes painfully touching tale.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940170383191
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 11/18/2008
Series: Sarah, Plain and Tall Series , #1
Edition description: Unabridged
Age Range: 8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

"Did: Mama sing every day?" asked Caleb. "Every-single-day? " He sat dose to the fire, his chin in his hand. It was dusk, and the dogs lay beside him on the warm, hearthstones.

"Every-single-day," I told him for the second time this week. For the twentieth time this month. The hundredth time this year? And the past few years?

"And did Papa sing, too?"

"Yes. Papa sang, too. Don't get so close, Caleb. You'll heat up."

He, pushed his chair back. It made a hollow scraping sound on the hearthstones, and the dogs stirred. Lottie, muff and black, wagged her tail and lifted her head., Nick slept on.

I turned the bread dough over and over on the marble slab on the kitchen table.

"Well, Papa doesn't sing anymore," said Caleb very softly. A log broke apart and crackled in the fireplace. He looked up at me. "What did I look like when I was born?"

"You didn't have any clothes on," I told him.

I know that," he said.

"You looked like this." I held the bread dough up in a round pale ball.

"I had hair, " said Caleb seriously.

"Not enough to talk about," I said.

"And she named me Caleb," he went on, filling in the old familiar story.

"I would have named you Troublesome,"' I said, making Caleb smile.

"And Mama handed me to you in the yellow blanket and said . . ." He waited for me to finish the story. "And said ... ? "

I sighed. "And Mama said, 'Isn't he beautiful, Anna? I "

"And I was," Caleb finished.

Caleb thought the story was over, and 1, didn't tell him what I had really thought. He was homely and plain, and he had a terrible holler and ahorrid smell. But these were not the worst of him. Mama died the next morning. That was the worst thing about Caleb.

"Isn't he beautiful, Anna? " Her last words to me, I had gone to bed thinking how wretched he looked. And I forgot to say good night.

I wiped my hands on my apron and went to the window. Outside, the prairie reached out and touched the places where the sky came down. Though winter was -nearly over, there were patches of -snow and ice everywhere. I looked at the long dirt road that crawled across the plains, remembering the morning that Mama had died, cruel and sunny. They had come for her in a wagon and, taken her away to be buried. And then the cousins and aunts and uncles had come and tried to fill up the house. But they couldn't.

Slowly, one, by one, they left. And then the days seemed long and dark like winter days, even though it wasn't winter. And Papa didn't sing.

Sarah, Plain and Tall. Copyright © by Patricia MacLachlan. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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