Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan

Reviewed by Matt H, Age 13

The story begins when Sarah Wheaton, a plain and tall lady from Maine, answers an advertisement Papa made for a a wife and mother for his two children. Caleb and Anna write to ask if she sings like their mother did. She answers that she does. Sarah comes for a trial period to see if she likes it at Papa’s farm. Along with her cat, Seal, Sarah stays for a month. Although she misses the sea, she eventually decides to stay.

I thought this book was incomplete if you don’t read the rest of the series. Patricia MacLachlan does give us a good idea about life in the prairies of America in the 1800s. I recommend this book to anyone willing to read all three: Sarah, Plain and Tall, Skylark, and Caleb’s Story.

Newberry Award Winner, 1986.

MacLachlan, Patricia. Sarah, Plain and Tall. A Charlotte Zolotow Book, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015.