Book #23: “Sarah, Plain and Tall” by Patricia MacLachlan

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Patricia MacLachlan

 Released: May 15th, 1985

Book #23 complete for the year, “Sarah, Plain and Talk” by Patricia MacLachlan.  This one is actually a reread.  I read this way back in grade school, but found hardcover editions online, and since I haven’t studied a lot of children’s books, knock out a few today.

Here’s what I learned:

- The children’s parents used to sing every day.  The father stopped singing since the mother passed.

- Anna is the cook of the family.

- Caleb was wrapped in a yellow blanket at birth.

- Anna feels the worst thing about her brother is that his birth caused their mother’s death.

- The mother’s last words were, “Isn’t he beautiful, Anna?”

- The mother used to sing about flowers, birds, and the moon at nighttime.

- Papa’s horse was named “Jack”, and he had raised him since he was a colt.  They also have Old Bess.

- Papa’s name is Jacob Witting.

- He placed an advertisement for a wife, and received a response from Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton from Maine.

- Sarah has a gray cat named “Seal”.

- While Sarah can braid hair, cook, and bake, she prefers building bookshelves, and paint.

- Sarah’s favorite colors are the colors of the sea.

- The children are comforted to hear that she sings

- Sarah arrived in the Spring.

- Anna and Caleb’s chores are shoveling the stalls, laying down new hay, feeding the sheep, sweeping, straightening things out, and carrying wood and a water.

- Sarah arrived wearing a big yellow bonnet.

- The mother once planted and maintained a Russian Olive.

- Sarah gave Caleb a moon snail as a meeting gift.

- Sarah gave Anna a sea stone.

- Sarah appeared lonely once she arrived.

- The kids really took to Sarah, especially Caleb who talked to her from morning to night, always curious and wondering things.

- Maine’s regional accent/dialect carries a version of “yes” when people says “A-yuh”.

- As time went in, it began to form a more permanent situation.

- Sarah’s brother William has a gray-and-white boat called “Kittiwake”.

- Sarah would cut everyone’s hair, and then throw the shorn pieces outside so that birds could use it to build nests.

- Sarah named the sheep after her aunts - Harriet, Mattie, and Lou.

- Sarah’s favorite song is “Sumer Is Icumen In”.

- Caleb’s first word was “Windmill”.

- Anna’s first word was “Flower”.

- Sarah’s first word was “Dune”.

- Jacob built a “dune” of hay that they all slid down as a family

- “Our dune”.  IYKYK

- During bad storms, Jacob ties a rope from the House to the barn door, so nobody gets lost.

- In Maine, barns are attached to the houses sometimes.

- Sarah taught Caleb to swim in the cow pond.

- The Wittings have neighbors, Matthew and Maggie.

- It takes Papa 5 horses to run a “big gang plow”

- Sarah becomes incredibly homesick, but feels better as she becomes more aquainted with Maggie.  She encourages her to grow a garden and give it the liveliness it had in Maine.

- Maggie offers to teach Sarah how to drive a wagon.

- “There is always something to miss, no matter where you are.”

- Sarah pushes Jacob to teach her how to drive the wagon.

- When Jacob mentions he needs to fix the roof, Sarah respond “We, need to fix the roof.”  Subtle love.

- They saved the farm during a Squall.

- “I will always miss my old home, but the truth of it is, I would miss you more.”

- “There will be Sarah’s sea, blue and gray and green, hanging on the wall. And songs, old ones and new. And Seal with yellow eyes.  And there will be Sarah, plain and tall.”

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Awesome book, haven’t read it in years.  I remember reading and watching the hallmark or lifetime movies with Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.  I especially enjoyed Skylark which is next.  Overall, great children’s novel.  Teaches how to deal with massive live change from perspectives of adults and children.  Learning new things, and just growing in a new setting or type of environment.  Highly Recommended.

On to Book 24: Skylark