Patricia MacLachlan
Before they were the Boxcar Children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden lived with their parents on Fair Meadow Farm
Although times are hard, the Aldens are happy—"the best family of all," Mama likes to say. One day, a blizzard hits the countryside, and a traveling family needs shelter. The Aldens take them in, and the strangers soon become friends. But things never stay the same at the farm, and the spring and summer bring events
...9) Cat talk
10) My friend Earth
12) The sick day
13) Someone like me
16) Prairie days
17) A Secret Shared
Newbery Medal–winning author Patricia MacLachlan paints a moving portrait of what it means to be a family, the power of love, and the importance of bringing the truth out into the light, in this beautiful and profound story about adoption.
Nora and Ben's younger sister Birdy loves to keep secrets. She surprises her family more than once: She hides a kitten in her room. She writes a beautiful poem. One day Birdy watches
...The fourth book in the series that began with the Newbery Medal–winning Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan.
I am a watcher. I am a listener, too. I am invisible. I can make myself so small and quiet and hidden that sometimes no one knows I am there to watch and listen.
Cassie spends her days watching Grandfather and Caleb in the barn, looking out at Papa working the fields, spying on her mother, Sarah,
...19) Wondrous Rex
Newbery Medal-winning author Patricia MacLachlan has written a magical and funny tale about the joy found in using words, sharing stories, and loving a wondrous dog: Rex.
Grace's aunt is a writer. She works with words every day and teaches Grace interesting words like "melancholy" and "delirious."
But Lily is often "flummoxed" by her writing. Her stories don't go anywhere, her desk is a mess, and her writer's group
...This beloved Newbery Medal–winning book is the first of five books in Patricia MacLachlan's chapter book series about the Witting family.
Set in the late nineteenth century and told from young Anna's point of view, Sarah, Plain and Tall tells the story of how Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton comes from Maine to the prairie to answer Papa's advertisement for a wife and mother. Before Sarah arrives, Anna and her younger brother
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