Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Re-reading books falls into three categories for me. Firstly, I re-read books every year to students in my library.  There are some books like The Amazing Adventures of Chilly Billy by Peter Mayle that I have now read hundreds of times.  Secondly there are books I want to read again but somehow cannot find the time. I look at them longingly in my library and hope one day I can pick them up but there are always so many new books to explore.  Thirdly there are books like Sarah, Plain and Tall which I do occasionally re-read just for the shear love of the story.  I do not really have a top ten or top twenty book list but if I did Sarah, Plain and Tall would certainly make the list.

Looking at the publication date of 1985 I imagine I must have read this book when it was first published although I have no real memory of this.  I have tried on a few occasions to read this book aloud to students but the first chapter does make me cry every time.

"What did I look like when I was born?' 'You didn't have any clothes on,' I told him.  'I know that,' he said ... 'And she named me Caleb,' he went on filling in the old familiar story.... 'And Mama handed me to you in the yellow blanket and said ..' He waited for me to finish the story, 'And said ..?' I sighed. 'And Mama said , 'Isn't he beautiful, Anna?' 'And I was,' Caleb finished.  Caleb thought the story was over, and I didn't tell him what I really thought.  He was homely and plain, and he had a terrible holler and a horrid smell.  But these were not the worst of him.  Mama died the next morning. That was the worst thing about Caleb."

Quoting this section from page two of this very famous book I have just noticed the blanket was yellow.  This is significant because when Sarah arrives to join the family and possibly marry Pa she is wearing a yellow hat.  A beautiful memory of Mama is that she sang.  Anna asks Sarah in a letter if she likes to sing.

"Dear Jacob, I will come by train.  I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall. Sarah.  ... Tell them I sing..."

I think Sarah, Plain and tall resonates with readers because it has such honesty.  Patricia MacLachlan based this book on a true event in her family history.  There is a movie of this book but I strongly recommend reading this very short novel first.  It only takes about one hour to read right through. If you enjoy Sarah, Plain and Tall you should also read Black-eyed Susan.  I do wonder that I am drawn to these books about life as an early settler in America.  It probably goes back to all the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder I read as a child. I simply devoured those books.  There are four more books in the series about Anna and Caleb.  The cover I have put here is not the same as my copy.  I have the Puffin edition from England.  Here is a very comprehensive set of teaching notes.  I also own a cassette tape of this story read by Glenn Close.  Click these links if you want to read more of the plot or a detailed review.

Black-eyed Susan by Jennifer Armstrong

Here is another old book which we have had to take out of our library due to wear and tear. Black-eyed Susan is a mix of Little House on the Prairie and Sarah Plain and Tall. I need to hunt for a replacement copy (1997).

Susie lives on the plains of Dakota. Even though I am not at all familiar with this landscape, Armstrong is such a lyrical writer I have a vivid picture in my mind from her words. 

“There wasn’t a tree within twenty miles of us, just some twisty box elders and cottonwoods along the creek … we shared the view again seeing how the land lay about us and fell in swells and rises, the movement of the wind visible in the movement of the grass.”

Susie lives in a sod house made from the earth with her mother and father but while Susie celebrates life every day by standing on the roof, arms outstretched to welcome the sun, her mother is living in the fog a deep depression. She can no longer leave the house and seems unable to smile or enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Susie and her father travel to town. Susie sees a piano for the first time and has fun interacting with the owners of the local general store. On the way home they meet up with a family of eight from Iceland who are moving west to start a new life. Susie and her father invite them to stay the night and this encounter becomes a turning point for Susie’s mother. She can now move on with her life and she might even bake a pie!

The title comes from the flowers her father plants each year on the roof of their sod house. 

“Every spring he planted them thick on the roof .. and when they bloomed in summer you could see our house standing out from the green prairie from just miles away.”

I probably should not have reviewed this book since it is no longer in our school library but perhaps you will be lucky and find one somewhere. If not you must read Sarah Plain and Tall and you might also enjoy Hill Hawke Hattie by Clara Gillow Clark. There is also a sod house in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book On the Banks of Plum Creek. You can see some photos of actual sod houses here. 

This happy ending seems a little unrealistic, but children will find it satisfying. The story has a strong sense of character, e.g., Susie's language as she narrates depicts a child in love with the literature her mother reads in their isolation. The emotional hardships of pioneer life are made clear in a loving family story. Kirkus