Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

The book recounts stories of how they all get to know each other and learn from one another. Sarah is from Maine and when she comes to stay for a trial period, they quickly learn that Sarah is a woman who speaks her own mind, does things her own way, and who brings music back into their home. The children are excited, but also apprehensive as they begin to correspond with the woman who answered Jacob’s ad, Sarah. When Caleb asks his father why he doesn’t sing since the death of his mother, Jacob responds by telling them that he has advertised for a wife from back east. Caleb is the heart of the little family with his innocence that inspires insightful questions. Anna’s mother had passed away some years earlier when Caleb was born. The book deals with themes of loneliness as the family all live in the reality of loss.

She lives with her father, Jacob, and her younger brother, Caleb. The story is told from the perspective of the oldest child, Anna. Her screenwriting credits include the “Sarah, Plain and Tall,” TV movie and sequels starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan is a sweet, early reader that tells the story of a father and his two children living on the prairie in the 19th century. Her many awards include a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as the American Library Association’s Notable Children’s Book award, according to the NEH website. Wyoming has remained a major part of her life and work. Wyoming has inspired many of her numerous books loved by generations of children, including the Newbery Medal-winning “Sarah, Plain and Tall.” “Prairie Days,” set for release in May, is all about memories of her first home in Wyoming. “Somehow I knew then that it was important in some way,” she said. Her family loved to drive through the prairie, and she’d asked her father to stop so she could pick up some dirt.

“Wherever I go, I’ll have this,” she remembers thinking. The Wyoming native and author of many award-winning books keeps that bag of dirt on her desk where she writes.

Patricia MacLachlan was about 5 years old when she gathered dirt from the prairie into a small plastic bag before her family moved from Cheyenne.