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books_n_pickles 's review for:
Sarah, Plain and Tall
by Patricia MacLachlan
Another Little Free Library find. I'm surprised how much I remembered. The book is more of a series of scenes than a linear narrative, but those scenes are touching and have stayed with me for at least two decades.
The Whittings--father Jacob, daughter Anna, and youngest son Caleb--have been without a wife and mother since theirs died after giving birth to Caleb. They've had relatives and a housekeeper to help them, but now Jacob would like a wife. He places an advertisement in a newspaper back east and Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton of Maine responds. She loves the sea, but her brother has married and she wants a change. Anna and Caleb are charmed from her first letter, and Sarah is even better in person: she is plain and tall, as promised; she brings a cat and seashells; she draws, sings, is an excellent carpenter, is eager to learn how to plow and ride horses and drive the carriage, and she loves the farm. But Caleb is worried he's too talkative and pesky, and Anna can tell how much Sarah misses the sea. Will Sarah want to stay with the Whittings?
It's unusual to find such a simple, happy family story. Maybe that's not realistic, but it's nice to see, for once, a family that loves each other. Even Anna's thought that "it took three whole days for me to love [Caleb]" after her mother died (p. 6) says as much about her love at the time of the story as it does about her pain when she lost her mother. We get other, similarly unsugarcoated slices of life on the frontier, both the lighthearted moments and the hard reality of being lonely, miles away from neighbors and town. And I've remembered those emotions described by MacLachlan for years. I can still remember my first time reading this, being anxious right along with Anne and Caleb to find out whether Sara would leave or stay--and that kind of emotional staying power is rare.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is a plain and simple story packed with heart and full of family and love. If you haven't read it, you're missing out.
Disclaimer: I might have shared two of Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton's name in my younger years (with one changed letter) but that does not in any way impact my opinion of this story. ;-)
The Whittings--father Jacob, daughter Anna, and youngest son Caleb--have been without a wife and mother since theirs died after giving birth to Caleb. They've had relatives and a housekeeper to help them, but now Jacob would like a wife. He places an advertisement in a newspaper back east and Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton of Maine responds. She loves the sea, but her brother has married and she wants a change. Anna and Caleb are charmed from her first letter, and Sarah is even better in person: she is plain and tall, as promised; she brings a cat and seashells; she draws, sings, is an excellent carpenter, is eager to learn how to plow and ride horses and drive the carriage, and she loves the farm. But Caleb is worried he's too talkative and pesky, and Anna can tell how much Sarah misses the sea. Will Sarah want to stay with the Whittings?
It's unusual to find such a simple, happy family story. Maybe that's not realistic, but it's nice to see, for once, a family that loves each other. Even Anna's thought that "it took three whole days for me to love [Caleb]" after her mother died (p. 6) says as much about her love at the time of the story as it does about her pain when she lost her mother. We get other, similarly unsugarcoated slices of life on the frontier, both the lighthearted moments and the hard reality of being lonely, miles away from neighbors and town. And I've remembered those emotions described by MacLachlan for years. I can still remember my first time reading this, being anxious right along with Anne and Caleb to find out whether Sara would leave or stay--and that kind of emotional staying power is rare.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is a plain and simple story packed with heart and full of family and love. If you haven't read it, you're missing out.
Disclaimer: I might have shared two of Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton's name in my younger years (with one changed letter) but that does not in any way impact my opinion of this story. ;-)