Book #24: “Skylark” by Patricia Maclachlan

 

Skylark

Patricia MacLachlan

 Released: March 10th, 1994

Book #24 complete for the year, “Skylark” by Patricia MacLachlan.  This is the sequel to the 1985 classic “Sarah, Plain and Tall.”

Here are some things I learned:

- Jacob and Sarah married in the summer.

- The family took a family photograph together.

- A massive drought has hit the plains.  Farms and ranches are suffering from little water.

- “We’d never leave Sarah.  We were both here.  Our names are written in this land.”

- Seal the cat has become pregnant with kittens to Sam, Matthew & Maggie’s Orange tabby.

- “Sometimes, what people choose to write down on paper is more important than what they say.”

- Anna journals daily.  There is a sense that Jacob is afraid to show emotion.  Anna is growing in self confidence.  Caleb just blurts everything out.  And Sarah has no idea of her influence on the family

- Sarah’s favorite part of the day is the sky after sunset.  “When you can’t tell where the color comes from.”

- “It will rain.”

- Mame gave birth to a baby calf.

- When Jacob worries over things, Sarah takes him on walks and dances with him through fields and meadows.

- Sarah’s aunts invite them to come visit in Maine

- The aunt’s talk of rain in Maine upsets Jacob as his ranch is suffering.

- Caleb sets a glass outside to collect water when it rains.

- The family has to ration water use.

- Joseph and Caroline’s well has dried up, so they pack up and leave town.  Sarah is dismayed and expresses angrily that that gave up on the situation.  Caleb sums it in “Sarah likes to make things right.”

- A huge fire breaks out in the west meadow.  Sarah and Jacob get into an argument because Sarah feels Jacob believe she secretly wants to leave her new life for a place where she could live a better life in greener areas.  They later make up dancing in the moonlight.

- “My dreams are cool.  They are cool and the color of the sky before rain, a dark and peaceful blue, the cloud edged in black before the rain comes and the earth smells sharp and sweet.  I remember that smell. The days are hit and still now.  Only my dreams are cool.”

- The river ran dry.

- Sarah gets upset when Maggie and Matthew talk about leaving.

- Sarah gets upset and stops Jacob from killing a coyote that stopped for some water.

- Jacob throws a birthday party for Sarah, and has all the friends in town come dance and eat in celebration.

- Jacob tried taking down Caleb’s rain glass, but puts it back up at Sarah’s urging.

- Matthew and Maggie are forced to leave when their well runs dry the day after the party.

- A dry thunderstorm strikes the barn setting it on fire.  As Jacob and Sarah work to put it out, they run out of water, and accept that they have just lost the barn.

- Sarah takes the kids to Maine as Jacob stays behind to fix the badly damaged ranch.

- Aunt Lou skinny-dips.

- The kids and Sarah miss Jacob dearly, and slowly become more depressed as the day go on.

- Jacob shows up randomly one day to surprise everyone, and announces the plains have finally received rain.

- After a trip to the doctor’s, Sarah and Jacob announce that they are pregnant and expecting a baby in the Spring.  

- The family returns back to the prairie, where Sarah write her name in the land of her new home.

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Amazing follow up to “Sarah, Plain and Tall”.  I have always enjoyed this literary sequel since I first read it in grade school.  I highly recommend the film “Skylark” with Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.  Superb acting to a good script.  

Great book, highly recommended.

On to Book #25: “Made In America” by Sam Walton.