Module 4: Sarah, Plain and Tall

 
Book Summary:  Papa advertises for a wife and Caleb and Anna want to know all about the woman who is coming.  Sarah comes and wins their heart.  She learns a lot about the world of farming, but misses her family and the sea of Maine as well.  They become a family.

My Impressions: A touching story which keeps you wondering right up until the very end. 

Professional Review: 

Kirkus Review (1985)

A warming, delicately tuned story set in an unspecified rural American past, about a motherless farm family and the woman who comes from Maine for a trial visit after Papa advertises for a wife. Even before she arrives, Sarah wins Anna and Caleb with her brusque but touching letters. ("Tell them I sing," she writes to Papa in answer to their question. We already know that Papa hasn't sung since Mama died, when Caleb was born.) Sarah learns to plow and teaches the others, even Papa, to play. She also talks about the colors of the sea, which she had to leave when her fisherman brother married and his wife took over the house in Maine. Anna and Caleb know that Sarah misses the sea, and they hang on every hint that she might stay. She does, of course, to everyone's satisfaction. JLG.

Library Uses:  This book can be used to teach the geographic locations of the states in the book.  Another idea would be to bring art into the library.  Have students of all ages watercolor the seascape as Sarah does. 

MacLachlan, P. (1985). Sarah, plain and tall. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books.

JLG.  (1985) Book Review. [Review of the Book Sarah, Plain and Tall, by P. MacLachlan].  Kirkus Review retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=60399cccbdb8b1bc104da07857c6c7f1