7.4 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Publisher Harper & Row Pages 58 Followed by Skylark | 3.7/5 Goodreads Language English Publication date April, 1985 Originally published April 1985 Genre Children's literature Page count 58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Characters Sarah Witting, Jacob Witting, Caleb, Harriet, Anna Similar Patricia MacLachlan books, Sarah - Plain and Tall Series books, John Newbery Medal winners | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sarah, Plain and Tall is a children's book written by Patricia MacLachlan, and the winner of the 1986 Newbery Medal, the 1986 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the 1986 Golden Kite Award. It explores themes of loneliness, abandonment, and coping with change.
Contents
The book was followed by four more exploring the Witting family after Sarah's arrival: Skylark, Caleb's Story, More Perfect Than the Moon, and Grandfather's Dance. The first three — Sarah, Plain and Tall; Skylark; and Caleb's Story — were the basis for three television movies: Sarah, Plain and Tall; Skylark; and Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End. The screenplay for each movie was written by MacLachlan. All three, starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken, have the same actors playing the roles of Sarah, Jacob, Anna, and Caleb.
Plot Overview
Set in the Midwestern United States during the late 19th century, Jacob Witting, a widowed farmer who is still saddened by the death of his wife during childbirth several years earlier, finds that the task of taking care of his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb, is too difficult to handle alone. He writes an ad in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Sarah Wheaton, from Maine, answers his ad and travels out to become his wife.
While Anna is initially apprehensive about Sarah as she still has memories of her late mother, Caleb is excited and deeply hopes that Sarah will stay. When Sarah arrives conditionally for one month, Anna notices that she is lonely and misses the sea. Stubborn and persistent, she gradually wins over Jacob with her insistence on learning and helping out with farm tasks. The Wittings become attached to her, though Caleb constantly worries that their home is not enough for her and that she misses the sea. When she goes to town by wagon on her own, Anna tries to reassure Caleb that Sarah will return, though she secretly fears that Sarah will not. They are overjoyed when she returns by nightfall. She admits that while she misses the sea, she would miss them more if she left them. Anna reveals that Jacob and Sarah married soon afterward.
Stage adaptation
The story was turned into a one-act children's musical and produced by TheatreWorks USA. The score is by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin. It ran Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre during summer 2002, with a cast that included Becca Ayers as Sarah, and John Lloyd Young as Caleb. It was brought back to New York in 2004, with a sold-out three-week run off-Broadway. It also ran at the O’Neill Theater Center, Waterford, Connecticut, in August 2003, with direction by Joe Calarco and featuring Kaitlin Hopkins.