Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

First published: 1985; illustrated

Type of work: Domestic realism

Themes: Family, death, gender roles, and love and romance

Time of work: The late 1800’s or early 1900’s; during the pioneer days

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: The plains states of middle America

Principal Characters:

• Caleb, brother to Anna
• Anna, Caleb’s sister, who cared for him after their mother died
• Papa, father of Caleb and Anna, a farmer, kind and affectionate to his children
• Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, a plain and tall woman who answered Papa’s letter, kind and gentle yet capable of handling things for herself, an animal lover
• Matthew, neighbor to Caleb, Anna, and Papa
• Maggie, Matthew’s wife and neighbor to Caleb, Anna, and Papa
• Rose, and
• Violet, Matthew and Maggie’s children

The Story

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a realistic tale set in the plains states region of the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. The plot centers on a pioneer family who are feeling loneliness of the death of the mother. The two children, Caleb and Anna, especially feel their mother’s loss. Anna remembers sadly that her mother’s last words were, “Isn’t he beautiful, Anna?” upon the birth of Caleb. When her mother died the next morning, Anna became, along with her father, the caretaker of her new baby brother. As time passes, Caleb wants to know more about his mother, and as Anna answers his questions, she is reminded of how sad they have become. Their loneliness, paralleled by the loneliness of prairie life, makes them acutely aware that many things are missing in their lives; their mother’s singing, their happiness, and their joy of living has been altered. Recognizing a need for a wife and mother, Papa places an advertisement for a mail-order bride.

Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton answers the advertisement and describes herself as a strong, hardworking woman who would be interested in coming to see “just how it is” on the prairie and if she would be happy there. Papa responds to her letter and asks Sarah a question that is important to Anna—namely, whether Sarah can sing. Sarah replies that she will visit them for one month. Knowing that Sarah loves the sea, Anna does not think she will like life on the prairie. To Anna’s amazement, when Sarah arrives she appears just as she said she would—plain, tall, strong, hardworking, and not mild-mannered. As time passes, the children teach Sarah about life on the prairie: the local flowers, the hay “dune” in the barn, and the winter on the prairie. Sarah tells them about the sea, teaches them songs, and describes life in Maine. Yet the children come to believe that Sarah misses her life by the sea so much that she will not stay and will not want to be their “mother” and Papa’s wife.

One day Maggie, a neighbor and also a mail-order bride, visits them. She tells Sarah that there will always be things that she will miss, no matter where she is. Maggie says that she gets lonesome for home too, but that she has benefited from life on the prairie. Later, Sarah, Papa, and the children are caught in a storm that has many ugly yet variously colored clouds. Caleb points out to Sarah what she has been missing: the colors of the sea.

Later Sarah states that she wants to learn to drive the wagon. When she does learn, Caleb becomes fearful about Papa letting her drive the wagon to town. Caleb is afraid that if Sarah is allowed to go, she will buy a train ticket and go back to her beloved Maine and to the sea she misses. Caleb then imagines where he might have failed where Sarah was concerned; maybe he was too loud and pesky or maybe the house was too small. As each hour passes, the children become more concerned about Sarah’s absence. Soon they can see the wagon and Sarah in it. Sarah comes back to Caleb, Anna, and Papa and brings with her the colors of the sea—three pencils of blue, gray, and green. The children know then that Sarah will stay with them forever and that life will go on as before. They know that there will be a wedding to plan, songs to sing, gardens to grow, the sea to draw and talk about, and chickens to name, but most of all, there will always be Sarah, “plain and tall.”

Context

Sarah, Plain and Tall is representative of Patricia MacLachlan’s work in that it centers on the importance of familial interdependence. Sarah, Plain and Tall deals with the idea of foster parenting as does MacLachlan’s Mama One, Mama Two (1982), which also delves into the issues of mental illness. In Through Grandpa’s Eyes (1980), MacLachlan shows the special bond that forms between John and his grandfather as John learns to “see” the world through his grandfather’s blind eyes.

All these works are nondidactic learning experiences for a young reader. They “show” without “telling” the different perspectives—adult and child—of situations involving both groups. A young reader is led to understand, for example, why Sarah decides to stay with her new family and how a child can make it easier for adults by recognizing the adult’s needs too. MacLachlan easily demonstrates the internurturing that occurs in healthy parent/child relationships.

Sarah, Plain and Tall is also an important work because it presents an accurate portrayal of a period of time that is crucial to the understanding of the development of the United States. The reader will learn vicariously, through involvement with the well-developed characters, about the period and find himself caught up in the prairie life. It was this depiction that helped to earn for Sarah, Plain and Tall and author MacLachlan the Newbery Medal for 1986 as well as the Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award for the same year.