[2012 Book Review # 1] Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

*Genre: Children's Book

*Winner of the 1986 Newberry Medal and 1986 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

I was browsing the bookstore looking for a new dose of children’s literature to read over the weekend when I chanced upon Sarah, Plain and Tall by Paricia MacLachlan. I’ve brought it and read the short story in one sitting. It was interesting and, like most valuable children’s books, full of values and wisdom.

I’ve read countless of fictional stories about mail-order brides told from the point of view from the bride herself or from the groom and from both. Oftentimes, the reason for engaging mail-order brides is to keep house and care for the groom’s motherless children. And oftentimes, it’s a happy ending. One notable mail-order bride story is Eye of the Beholder by Ruth Ann Nordin.

Anway, what sets Sarah, Plain and Tall apart from these fictional stories is that it is told from the observant and reflective perspective of the eldest child, Anna Witting. It seems that the story answered my curiosity about how children would react to a new woman in the house. Rather that resistant and defiant, Anna and her younger brother, Caleb, are all welcoming and clamouring for attention and worrying over the possibility that Sarah, their father’s mail-order bride would suddenly leave, just like their mother who died unexpectedly on the day after giving birth to Caleb.

Without their birth mother, Anna and Caleb lead a quite life on the prairie while their father “doesn’t sing anymore”. Then their father puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife. He receives a letter from Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton of Maine. He and his children each wrote back a letter, asking a lot of questions. Caleb particularly asks if Sarah sings. And she wrote back: I am plain and tall, and tell them I sing. Sarah decides to come for a month.

I like the idea that instead of just the father, the children also write back. After all, they are the ones spending a lot of time with Sarah; they need to know if they all will suit together by asking simple yet touching questions—Do you know how to braid hair? Do you know how to make stew and bake bread? What are your favorite colors? Do you like small rooms? Can you keep a fire going at night? Do you snore when you sleep? Can you sing?

It is this last question that really touches me. Singing is an exciting form of communication. It transforms the quiet days into more lively and unforgettable moments. For Anna and Caleb, this is important, for in wanting a woman who can sing, they desire to bring back their home to how it was before when their mother was alive and their happy father sings with her.

“You don’t sing anymore.” (Caleb) said. He said it harshly. Not because he meant to but because he had been thinking of it for so long. “Why?” he asked more gently.Slowly Papa straightened up. There was a long silence, and the dogs look up, wondering at it. –page 8

The prairie where the Wittings live is almost different from the landscape in Maine where Sarah resides with her brother, a fisherman, very close to the sea. Sarah loves the sea. This is enough for the children to worry. Oh, the worries are well-expressed, with Anna trying to be very hard to be strong about it.

Sarah turned and looked out over the plains.

“No,” she said. “There is no sea here. But the land rools a little like the sea.”

My father did not see her look, but I did. And I knew that Caleb has seen it, too. Sarah was not smiling. Sarah was already lonely. In a month’s time the preacher might come to marry Sarah and Papa. And a month was a long time. Time enough for her to change her mind and leave us…

I wish everything was as perfect as the stone. I wished that Papas and Caleb and I were perfect for Sarah. I wished we had a sea of our own. –page 23-24

Then there is the issue with regards to Sarah’s low self-esteem, insisting that she is plain and tall. But in the eyes of the children, she is made out as beautiful because of her love for life, her joy to try new things, and her ability to be able to communicate with them.

The most touching part, for me, is when Sarah brought the sea to the prairie. And that would be something you should find out for yourself. But one thing is for sure, the story portrays brave children and their desire to keep their family together—a desire so strong it pains them emotionally after experiencing loneliness and abandonment.

Five stars!

Sarah, Plain and Tall is book 1 of The 2012 Something New Reading Challenge.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is book 1 of the 2012 Award Winning Books Reading Challenge.