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.
The book was followed by four sequels exploring the Witting family after Sarah's arrival: Skylark, Caleb's Story, More Perfect Than the Moon, and Grandfather's Dance.
Plot overview
The story is 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 before, finds that the task of taking care of his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb, is too difficult for him to handle alone. He writes an ad in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Sarah Wheaton of Maine answers it and decides to travel to their home for a trial period of one month, in hopes of marrying Jacob.
While Anna is initially apprehensive about Sarah as she still has memories of her late mother, Caleb is excited and deeply hopes that she will stay. When she arrives, Anna notices that she is lonely and misses the sea. She is stubborn and persistent, and she gradually wins over Jacob with her insistence on learning and helping out with farm tasks. The Wittings become attached to her, even 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 she will return, while secretly fearing that she will not. They are overjoyed when she returns by nightfall. Admitting that she misses the sea, she says that she would miss them more if she left. Anna reveals that Jacob and Sarah are married soon afterward.
Adaptations
Film adaptations
The book was adapted into a 1991 television film of the same name that is directed and produced by Glenn Jordan from a teleplay by MacLachlan and Carol Sobieski. The film stars Glenn Close and Christopher Walken, and received nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations (winning one).
The next two books in the series, Skylark and Caleb's Story, were the basis for two more television films — Skylark and Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End. MacLachlan wrote them, and the same actors played the roles of Sarah, Jacob, Anna, and Caleb.
Stage adaptation
The book was made into a one-act children's musical and produced by TheatreWorksUSA. 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 in Waterford, Connecticut in August 2003, with direction by Joe Calarco and featuring Kaitlin Hopkins.