Skylark (Sarah, Plain and Tall Saga #2)

by Patricia MacLachlan (Author)

Skylark (Sarah, Plain and Tall Saga #2)
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

The second book in the series that began with the Newbery Medal–winning Sarah, Plain and Tallby Patricia MacLachlan.

My mother, Sarah, doesn't love the prairie. She tries, but she can't help remembering what she knew first.

Sarah came to the prairie from Maine to marry Papa. But that summer, a drought turned the land dry and brown. Fires swept across the fields and coyotes came to the well in search of water. So Sarah took Anna and Caleb back east, where they would be safe. Papa stayed behind. He would not leave his land.

Maine was beautiful, but Anna missed home, and Papa. And as the weeks went by, she began to wonder what would happen if the rains never came. Would she and Caleb and Sarah and Papa ever be a family again?

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Publishers Weekly

The magnificent sequel to MacLachlan's Newbery-winning Sarah, Plain and Tall opens on a joyous note: "Papa married Sarah on a summer day. There were no clouds in the sky, and Papa picked Sarah up in his arms and whirled her around and around, her white dress and veil surrounding him like the summer wind. Caleb was so excited and happy that he burst into tears. Everybody was happy." But the cloudless sky is not a good omen. A devastating drought descends on the prairie; Anna, the narrator, and her brother, Caleb, dream of rain, and the boy puts a glass out on the fence post to catch the drops when they fall. But none do. As wells dry up and neighbors move away, Sarah is increasingly on edge, not so firmly rooted as her husband, Jacob. She cries out that Jacob "once said his name was written in this land, but mine isn't. It isn't!" After the barn burns one night--struck by lightning, ironically unaccompanied by rain--Sarah takes the children to stay with her aunts in Maine. Though enchanted by the verdancy and the sea, Anna and Caleb miss the prairie terribly. And they all long to see Jacob again. He finally comes to Maine, with word that rain has fallen back home. Sarah has news, too: she expects a baby in the spring. When the family returns to the farm, Sarah takes a stick and writes her name in the dirt. Recalling the letters Jacob wrote to her before she first arrived on the prairie, Sarah tells Anna, "I loved what was between the lines most." Indeed, there is a great deal found between the lines of MacLachlan's own writing, which so neatly presents a very real setting and enormously powerful characters, yet leaves spaces for readers to fill in as they like. This stirring novel's flawlessly crafted dialogue and imagery linger long after the final, hopeful message is delivered--by Caleb, who looks ahead to the spring, when flowers will return, the river will run again, and Sarah will have "our baby." There are worlds in MacLachlan's words. Ages 8-10. 50,000 first printing. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-The Wittings-Sarah and Jacob, Caleb and Anna-return in the sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall (HarperCollins, 1985). Life on the prairie has become exceedingly difficult; many of the family's friends and neighbors are leaving because of a drought. Although Jacob insists they will not leave-because "Our names are written in this land"-the children are quick to worry, knowing that Sarah, who hails from Maine, may not feel the same commitment to the farm. After a fire destroys their barn, Sarah and the children journey east to visit her family for the summer. The contrast in climate and scenery on the coast at first distracts the children, but even the long-sought-after rain cannot comfort them as they wonder whether they will all be together again. When Jacob arrives suddenly one day, he and Sarah announce that they will have a baby in the spring, and the family returns to their farm. There Sarah writes her name in the prairie dirt. MacLachlan's prose is as lyrical and graceful as ever. Packed with meaning and portent, each sentence shows the careful touch of a master of understatement. Brief passages from Anna's journal enhance the emotional intensity of the book, and build on the childlike perspective presented in the first-person narrative. MacLachlan's sure hand in Skylark will undoubtedly win her many new readers.-Ellen Fader, Oregon State Library, Salem

Review quotes

"MacLachlan's prose is as lyrical and graceful as ever. Packed with meaning and portent, each sentence shows the careful touch of a master."— "School Library Journal"""Skylark" is one sequel that is as successful as the original."— "The Horn Book"
Patricia MacLachlan

Patricia MacLachlan (1938-2022) was the award-winning author of many novels for children, including the Newbery Medal and Scott O'Dell Award-winning Sarah, Plain and Tall, which was adapted into a Hallmark television movie starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. She co-wrote the teleplay for the film as well as for two sequels, Skylark and Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End, based on her novels.

Honored with a Christopher Award and a National Humanities Medal among many others, MacLachlan was also the author of Baby, Waiting for the Magic, The Truth of Me, and the picture books Someone Like Me (illustrated by Chris Sheban), and The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse (illustrated by Hadley Hooper).

Chris Sheban has been awarded three gold and three silver medals from the Society of Illustrators. Some of the books he has illustrated are I Met a Dinosaur by Jan Wahl, Catching the Moon by Myla Goldberg, and What To Do With a Box by Jane Yolen. Someone Like Me is his first book with Roaring Brook Press.

Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780060233280
Lexile Measure
620
Guided Reading Level
R
Publisher
HarperCollins
Publication date
March 10, 1994
Series
Sarah, Plain and Tall Saga
BISAC categories
JUV039090 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | New Experience
JUV013080 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Blended Families
Library of Congress categories
Frontier and pioneer life
Stepmothers
Droughts
Prairies
Witting family (Fictitious characters)

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