 |
|
| Patricia MacLachlan | |
Patricia MacLachlan, an award-winning author "known to millions of young readers as the author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, a novel about two motherless farm children and the gentle woman who comes to the prairie to make them whole," died March 31, the Washington Post reported. She was 84.
MacLachlan wrote more than 60 children's books during her career. She "deplored children's books of the moralizing kind, those sledgehammers of literature wielded by grown-ups determined to pound ideas into young minds," the Post noted.
"Among some writers there's this ghastly notion that one has to teach children lessons," she once told the Orange County Register. "That's condescending and incorrect. It's not what writing is about. You write to find out what you're thinking about, to find out how you feel."
Sarah, Plain and Tall received the Newbery Medal and has sold more than seven million copies since it first appeared in 1985. The book was adapted into a 1991 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie starring Glenn Close as Sarah and Christopher Walken as Jacob Witting, the father of Anna and Caleb. MacLachlan co-wrote the script.
She also wrote several sequels, including Skylark (1994), Caleb's Story (2001), More Perfect Than the Moon (2004) and Grandfather's Dance (2006). MacLachlan's other books include Journey (1991), Baby (1993) and Cassie Binegar (1982). She wrote several books with her daughter, Emily MacLachlan Charest, including Once I Ate a Pie (2006), Fiona Loves the Night (2007), I Didn't Do It (2010), Cat Talk (2013) and Little Robot Alone (2018).
"Children read with a certain belief and vision about finding themselves in literature," MacLachlan said when she received a 2002 National Humanities Medal. "Literature changes their lives. They have a sense of closeness with literature that speaks for them."
MacLachlan's connection to the Wyoming of her youth--and to the world of Sarah, Plain and Tall--was such that throughout her life, she kept a souvenir of the prairie, the Post noted.
"I carry a small bag of prairie dirt to remind me of where I began--the prairie that I miss and still dream about," she said in an interview published on the website Two Writing Teachers. "It is sort of like a charm from my childhood. I had a wonderful childhood with wonderful parents who were storytellers and educators. They loved and respected children. So, my little bag of prairie reminds me of them, too."