Skylark

This book is the sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall. Sarah and Jacob were wed and lived happily with Anna and Caleb. Everything is going great until they enter a drought. Neighbors are packing up and leaving, wells are running dry, and fires are starting everywhere. After Jacob’s well runs dry, he

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sends Sarah and the kids to Maine. They live there with Sarah’s family while Jacob stayed to rebuild their burned down barn and to wait for the rain. Anna and Caleb liked to ocean but they missed their home and father terribly. They thought of how Sarah must have felt when she moved across the country for them. They wait and wait and finally one day they see their father looking out over the ocean. They run to him and he tells them that it has finally rained. The children were excited but worried that Sarah will want to stay there and not return home with them. Sarah, Anna, Caleb, and Jacob all return home and Sarah with good news.

They are a close family and it seems like nothing can pull them apart. My family is also very close. Of course, we have had some rough times but in the end everything has turned out wonderful. I know that no matter what I will always have my family’s back and they will always have mine.

I would do this unit along with the one from Sarah, Plain and Tall. The children would learn about the pioneer days and about the droughts. They would learn the definition of drought and what a lot of families did back in the pioneer days; the days when they were going through a drought. Then the children would come up with their own ideas for what they would have done if they had lived in those days. An additional activity would be to have the children use a map to find out how far Maine is from their home. On the last day of this unit, the students would come to class dressed up in clothes from the pioneer days.

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This book is about struggles within a family. The prairie in which they call home is suffering through a drought. The family had to go through separation and heartache. In the end, faith worked in their favor and eventually, the family reunited again and was able to return home.

This book is appropriate for grades 3-6. This book has not received any awards. This book is a sequel to "Sarah, Plain and Tall". This book tells about Sarah and how she has not settled down into her life on the prairie. They say she is like a skylark. When there is a severe drought on the prairie,

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Sarah and the children go back to Maine to live with her aunts. Uses in the classroom for this book could be a writing assignment for the students to talk about a time when they had to relocate to another place or go somewhere else without their entire family and what they did, and how they felt when they had to do that.

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It's hard to live up to Sarah Plain and Tall, but this is pretty good for a sequel.

Another sequel to a Newberry Medal winner, written way after. There's something about these books that is just so comforting. Definitely enjoyable - and why not read? So short!

The Sequel to Newbery award winning Sarah, Plain and Tall tells the story of the early pioneers who moved out west. Moving from Maine, Sarah becomes the mother and wife to a loving family. When severe draught hits, many leave because life is not sustainable. When things get exceedingly tough, Sarah

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and the two children temporarily move back to Maine. Embracing Sarah's family, but missing their father and the midwest, they long to return.

When rain falls and grass begins to green, Sarah's husband makes the long journey to Maine to reclaim his family.

While not one of her best, this is a touching story and holds the magic of MacLachlan's wonderful ability to paint clear, sharp images surrounded by a glow of a heartwarming story.

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If you liked Sarah, Plain and Tall, you'll like Skylark. The Witting's prairie farm is experiencing a terrible drought, which tests Sarah's resolve as she thinks of her family in lush, green Maine where she grew up. Eventually Papa sends her and the two children, Anna and Caleb, to her Maine family

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for relief while he labors to save the farm. The four's strong love for one another threads throughout this spare, evocative book, a worthy sequel to the first. I'll be reading the next one, Caleb's Story. MacLachlan's ability to convey so much with so few words is impressive.

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Sarah has come from Maine to marry Jacob, and be mother to Anna and Caleb. The family lives on the prairie on a sheep and wheat farm. The first summer they are together the land experiences a drought. Anna and Caleb are afraid that Sarah will leave them and go back to the sea because of the lack of

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water. As other families leave their farms, the weather threatens to tear this newly formed family apart.
The book is told from young Anna's perspective, including her thoughts and worries about losing her new mother, and shows Sarah's desperation in this new situation, but also her determination to make it work. Though this situation is foreign to modern readers, parallels can be drawn between the drought and any situation that causes stress on a new relationship. Recommended for young readers, with parental guidance for explanations and discussion.

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This is the sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall. Like many sequels, it does not live up to the first book in the series.

Skylark by Patricia Maclachlan is a sequel to Sarah Plain and Tall, and here I got to catch up with the family that was such a delight to read about. In this book, the family is feeling complete, strong and happy in their being together and now having Sarah as their wife and mother. But things are

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not perfect, there is trouble however in the lack of rain. This is the prairies and crops, animals and people rely on the rain to supply the water that is needed. As the drought goes on, and neighbours around them are pulling out the tension increases. Eventually the father, Jacob, decides it will be best if Sarah takes the children to visit her aunts in Maine on an extended holiday.

At first Sarah and the children delight in the greenness of Maine and the happiness of being with the relatives. They are amazed by the ocean and much of their time on the beach or out in a boat. But as the newness wears off, they all start to miss Jacob and their home. As time passes, they become more and more concerned about when they will be able to go home. Of course, Jacob is missing them tremendously and comes for them as soon as rain finally arrives on the prairies.

This book is a very quick read, being about100 pages, but it reminds one of the strength and comfort one finds in family. The author has a flair for being able to paint life’s tender moments in a true and touching manner. Quite simply Skylark was a joy to read.

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Skylark by Patricia Maclachlan is a sequel to Sarah Plain and Tall, and here I got to catch up with the family that was such a delight to read about. In this book, the family is feeling complete, strong and happy in their being together and now having Sarah as their wife and mother. But things are

Show More

not perfect, there is trouble however in the lack of rain. This is the prairies and crops, animals and people rely on the rain to supply the water that is needed. As the drought goes on, and neighbours around them are pulling out the tension increases. Eventually the father, Jacob, decides it will be best if Sarah takes the children to visit her aunts in Maine on an extended holiday.

At first Sarah and the children delight in the greenness of Maine and the happiness of being with the relatives. They are amazed by the ocean and much of their time on the beach or out in a boat. But as the newness wears off, they all start to miss Jacob and their home. As time passes, they become more and more concerned about when they will be able to go home. Of course, Jacob is missing them tremendously and comes for them as soon as rain finally arrives on the prairies.

This book is a very quick read, being about100 pages, but it reminds one of the strength and comfort one finds in family. The author has a flair for being able to paint life’s tender moments in a true and touching manner. Quite simply Skylark was a joy to read.

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A one day read, a little over 200 pages. Translated from the Hungarian. The author lived 1885 to 1936. Takes place in 1899. An old couple’s old maid of a daughter goes away for a week, to visit family. The old couple, at first bereft at the absence of their unexciting and uninteresting daughter,

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soon surprise themselves by discovering a social world outside of their reclusive home. They rediscover old friends, restaurants, the theatre. It is a comic novel — his descriptions of the daughter in particular are cutting, yet all done in a style of “I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em” A gently comic novel, with unerringly accurate and insightful descriptions of motives, relationships. Best of all were his descriptions of the ugly old maid daughter of the old couple.

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There is nothing wrong with these books, they're sweet, the characters are pleasant, but they're just so, so very slight. Almost nothing happens--I feel this could have eaten up about 2 chapters in a different novel. My e-version even misled me as to its length, since after Skylark ended the file

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was padded with samples from not just the next in the series, but the next three! It's a sweet, short story, but if you're looking for a novel to sink your teeth into you won't find this filling enough.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s)

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Their father and Sarah have married, but Anna and Caleb still find life difficult on the plains when a drought threatens their farm and neighbors start moving away when the wells run dry.

Rereading the first two books in this series as an adult has been delightful. I wonder if MacLachlan's spare

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style and way of sketching a story in broad strokes and leaving the reader's imagination to fill in the details impacted what I look for in a story now. I remembered most of what happened in [Skylark], but it was surprising to me to realize that the part that I remembered most (when Sarah and the kids traveled to Maine) was actually a small percentage of the whole story. Now I'm wondering how much of my memories are affected by the movie, which I want to go back and revisit as well.

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In the second book of the Sarah, Plain and Tall series we get to see Sarah and Jacob settling in as a family after their marriage. Sarah's heart is with her new family, but she doesn't love the land yet. A draught and a trip home to her beloved Maine helps her to find the peace she needs. A

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beautiful addition to the series.

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This book would be good to use when talking about the early 19th century. I think students would like this book because of the characters and how they struggle with the drought.

I remember liking this children's historical fiction book even more than the one before it, Sarah, Plain and Tall, when I read them as a child. Would I still love Skylark that much, reading it again as an adult?

Well. I'm pretty sure I love it more now, having the benefit of my current perspective

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added to the memory of my childhood heart.

It's a simple but substantive story of family, written with a light yet poignant touch. You really do feel the sting of the Wittings' multifaceted struggle. When there are tears, they're relatable. When there's laughter, it's refreshing. The Wittings' bonds are growing and deepening—including the grown-up love between Sarah and Jacob, witnessed through Anna's young but perceptive eyes.

Back when I read the first two books, the rest of this series didn't exist yet. So I'll soon be checking out more about the Witting family for the first time.

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