Author/Illustrator: Patricia MacLachlan
Genre: Historical Fiction, novel
Awards: Newbery Winner
Grade level: 3-5
Anna and Caleb are siblings who lost their mother the day after Caleb was born.They live with their father, on a prairie. They all miss the mother deeply, but become excited when they see an ad in the paper for a woman to marry their dad and become their mother, a woman named Sarah. They all write her letters, and she decides to come for a visit. They can tell she loves the sea in Maine where she is from, so they are not sure she will like the prairie. She comes and fits right in with the family. They all love her. Sarah misses the sea and her brother, but decides she would miss this family even more. She tells Jacob that she wants to marry him, become part of the family, and start a life together.
The illustrations for this novel only include the cover. Inside the book is only text. The outside cover is a painting that depicts a simplistic olden life. The people appear to be from a different era. They are wearing early 1900s clothes and the house pictured seems to be from the same era.
This book is a great read for children in grades 3-5 because it shows family life in such a simplistic way. It shows a family's tough loss and their yearning for a mother and wife figure in their lives. This can be a hard topic for younger children.
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