Patricia MacLachlan Books In Order

Barkus Books In Publication Order

  1. Barkus (2017)
  2. Barkus Dog Dreams (2018)
  3. The Most Fun (With: ) (2021)

Boxcar Children Mysteries Books In Publication Order

  1. The Boxcar Children Beginning: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm (2012)

Sarah, Plain and Tall Books In Publication Order

  1. Sarah, Plain and Tall (1985)
  2. Skylark (1994)
  3. Caleb’s Story (2000)
  4. More Perfect Than The Moon (2004)
  5. Grandfather’s Dance (2006)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Cassie Binegar (1980)
  2. Arthur, for the Very First Time (1980)
  3. Tomorrow’s Wizard (1982)
  4. Seven Kisses in a Row (1983)
  5. Unclaimed Treasures (1984)
  6. The Facts And Fictions Of Minna Pratt (1988)
  7. Journey (1991)
  8. Baby (1993)
  9. Edward’s Eyes (2007)
  10. The True Gift (2009)
  11. Word After Word After Word (2010)
  12. Waiting for the Magic (2011)
  13. Kindred Souls (2012)
  14. White Fur Flying (2013)
  15. Prairie Days (2013)
  16. The Truth of Me (2013)
  17. Fly Away (2014)
  18. The Poet’s Dog (2016)
  19. Just Dance (2017)
  20. My Fathera s Words (2018)
  21. Dream Within a Dream (2019)
  22. A Secret Shared (2021)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Wondrous Rex (2020)

Picture Books In Publication Order

  1. Through Grandpa’s Eyes (1971)
  2. The Sick Day (1979)
  3. Moon, Stars, Frogs, and Friends (1980)
  4. Mama One, Mama Two (1982)
  5. Three Names (1991)
  6. All the Places to Love (1994)
  7. What You Know First (1995)
  8. Painting the Wind (2003)
  9. Bittle (2004)
  10. Who Loves Me? (2005)
  11. Once I Ate a Pie (2006)
  12. Fiona Loves the Night (2007)
  13. I Didn’t Do It (2010)
  14. Before You Came (2011)
  15. Your Moon, My Moon (2011)
  16. Lala Salama (2011)
  17. Nora’s Chicks (2013)
  18. Snowflakes Fall (2013)
  19. Cat Talk (2013)
  20. You Were the First (2013)
  21. The Iridescence of Birds (2014)
  22. The Moon’s Almost Here (2016)
  23. Someone Like Me (2017)
  24. Barkus (2017)
  25. Little Robot Alone (2018)
  26. Barkus Dog Dreams (2018)
  27. Chicken Talk (2019)
  28. The Hundred-Year Barn (2019)
  29. My Friend Earth (2020)
  30. When Grandfather Flew (With: ) (2021)

Judy Blume Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. It’s Heaven to Be Seven (With: Roald Dahl,Judy Blume,,Beverly Cleary) (2000)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. It’s Fine to Be Nine (2000)
  2. Acting Out (2008)

Barkus Book Covers

Boxcar Children Mysteries Book Covers

Sarah, Plain and Tall Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Picture Book Covers

Judy Blume Short Story Collections Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Patricia MacLachlan Books Overview

Sarah, Plain and Tall

‘I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall.’

A heartwarming story about two children, Anna and Caleb, whose lives are changed forever when their widowed papa advertises for a mail order bride. Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton from Maine answers the ad and agrees to come for a month. Sarah brings gifts from the sea, a cat named Seal, and singing and laughter to the quiet house. But will she like it enough to stay? Anna and Caleb wait and wonder and hope.

Performed by Glenn Close

‘Did Mama sing every day?’ Caleb asks his sister Anna. ‘Every single day,’ she answers. ‘Papa too.’

Winner, 1986 Newbery Medal
1986 Christopher Award
1986 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Children
1986 Golden Kite Award for Fiction SCBW
Notable Children’s Book of 1985 ALA
1985 Children’s Editors’ Choices BL
Best Books of 1985 SLJ
Children’s Choices for 1986 IRA/CBC
Outstanding Children’s Books of 1985 N.Y. Times Book Review
International Board of Books for Young People Honor List for Writing, 1988
1986 Notable Trade Book in the Language Arts NCTE
1986 Fanfare Honor List The Horn Book
1985 Books for Children Library of Congress
1988 Garden State Children’s Book Award New Jersey
1988 Charlie May Simon Children’s Book Award Arkansas
100 Favorite Paperbacks 1989 IRA/CBC
Best of the 80’s BL
1986 Christopher Award
1986 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Children
1986 Golden Kite Award for Fiction SCBW
Notable Children’s Books of 1985 ALA
1985 Children’s Editors’ Choices BL
Best Books of 1985 SLJ
Children’s Choices for 1986 IRA/CBC
Outstanding Children’s Books of 1985 NYTBR
1986 Fanfare Honor List The Horn Book
1985 Children’s Books Library of Congress
1988 Garden State Children’s Book Award New Jersey Library Association
1988 Charlie May Simon Children’s Book Award Arkansas
100 Favorite Paperbacks of 1989 IRA/CBC
Best of the ’80s BL
1986 Notable Children’s Trade Books in the Language Arts NCTE
1988 Choices Association of Booksellers for Children
1988 International Borad of Books for Young People Honor List for Writing
1986 Jefferson Cup Award Virginia Library Association

Skylark

When Sarah came to the prairie, Anna and her brother Caleb worried that she would not stay and be their new mother. But Sarah fell in love with Caleb and Anna, and with their father, Jacob. Together they became a family. Jacob is a man of the land but for Sarah, the prairie isn’t yet her home. So when a drought threatens to devastate their way of life, Jacob must save the farm. But the children go back to the home Sarah knew first, Maine, where there is family and an ocean. But will they ever be a family again on the prairie? ‘Fans will rejoice for this eagerly awaited sequel.”K. ‘Maclachlan’s writing is lyrical…
. Will be a must for fans.’ ‘C. ‘There are worlds in MacLachlan’s words.’ ‘Publishers Weekly.

Caleb’s Story

Anna has done something terrible. She has given me her journal to fill. In Anna’s journal the words walk across the page like bird prints in the mud. But it is hard for me. It is hard for me to find things to write about. ‘It s your job now,’ Anna says as she hands Caleb her journals, asking him to continue writing the family story. But Sarah, Jacob, Anna, Caleb, and their new little sister, Cassie, have already formed a family, and Caleb fears there will be nothing left to write about. But that is before Cassie discovers a mysterious old man in the barn and everything changes. Everyone is excited about the arrival of a new family member except for Jacob, who holds a bitter grudge. Only the special love of Caleb, and the gift he offers, can help to mend the pain of the past. Caleb s Story continues the saga begun by the Newbery Medal winning Sarah, Plain And Tall and its sequel, Skylark, spinning a tale of love, forgiveness, and the ties that bind a family together. Ages 8 10

More Perfect Than The Moon

Cassie spends her days watching Grandfather and Caleb in the barn, looking out at Papa working the fields, spying on Sarah feeding the goslings. She’s an observer, a writer, a storyteller. Everything is as it should be.

But change is inevitable, even on the prairie. Something new is expected, and Sarah says it will be the perfect gift. Cassie isn’t so sure. But just as life changes, people change too. And Cassie learns that unexpected surprises can bring great joy.

More Perfect Than The Moon invites us back to the Witting family farm, visited in the Newbery Medal winning Sarah, Plain and Tall; Skylark; and Caleb’s Story. With her lyrical prose, Patricia MacLachlan writes about a family’s boundless capacity for love.

Performed by Glenn Close

Grandfather’s Dance

Could anything be more perfect than a prairie wedding? Cassie doesn’t think so, for a wedding brings: Two lovebirds together, Aunts from faraway Maine, A long white dress with a wedding veil, Zinnias, Satin ribbons, Dancing under a clear blue sky, And a world that smells of roses. And as the Witting family comes together for this most special day, Cassie sees that life brings: The change of seasons, Brother Jack on Grandfather’s lap, A brand new car, Joy, Sorrow, And a special dance only Grandfather does. Sarah, Plain and Tall began the Witting family’s saga on the prairie. Now the story completes its circle with Grandfather’s Dance, Patricia MacLachlan’s poetic celebration about the enduring spirit of family.

Cassie Binegar

Cassie thought longingly of the order and pattern in her mother’s old garden inland. And her old tree house, built on the low limbs of a huge maple tree. It had been her space. Here there was no space for her. Even her own room was not hers. Cassie Binegar whose name rhymes with vinegar hates the weathered house by the sea, where there is no space to call her own. She yearns to go back to her old home, back to the time before she had yelled at her grandfather, before he had died. She tongs for an orderliness to life a pattern that doesn’t exist among her raucous, loving family. Cassie hides and watches and listens; but then her Gran comes Gran, who is so good at seeing the truth about Cassie. The rest of Cassie’s relatives arrive also: Uncle Hat, who sometimes speaks in rhymes, Cousin Coralinda, who wears too many feathers, and Baby Binnie, who speaks a language all her own. When a stranger comes for the summer, Cassie begins to learn that there are some things that do not stay the same forever. Patricia MacLachlan, with the gentle insight and understatement that characterizes all her stories, writes of a wistful young girl trying to look at the world through the eyes of those she loves.

Arthur, for the Very First Time

Arthur Rasby is ten years old and having the worst summer of his life. His parents don’t listen to him, so he writes everything down everything that’s real in his journal. But when he goes to stay with his Great Aunt Elda and Great Uncle Wrisby on their farm, his world is turned upside down. For the first time Arthur wonders what’s real and what’s not. His aunt and uncle do things Arthur’s parents would never do like climbing out windows to sit in trees, singing to their pet pig, and speaking French to a pet chicken. Life on the farm happens much too fast to write down sometimes wonderful, sometimes terrible. Arthur begins to understand there is more than one way of seeing and doing and loving. And he realizes there’s a whole world just waiting to be discovered.

Seven Kisses in a Row

It’s not fair, Emma thinks, for her parents to go away for five whole days and leave her with an aunt and uncle she hardly knows. What if they don’t like children? But Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Eliot like Emma and her brother, Zachary, just fine. They also like rules. Rules about: Eating. Sleeping. Cleaning up. Messing up. Emma doesn’t believe in rules. Not unless they’re hers: Eating no broccoli, dead or alive. Sleeping: No sleeping in a room where night rumbles hide. Cleaning up: Don’t. Messing up: Do. Emma can see that Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Elliot have a lot to learn about being parents. But that’s okay because Emma has five whole days in which to teach them.

Unclaimed Treasures

Willa does fall in love, but it isn’t at all the way she dreamed it would be. And just what is extraordinary? Willa and twin brother Nicky’s mother is going to have a baby how ordinary. Their friend Horace’s mother has left to’seek her fortune.’That, Willa thinks, is extraordinary. Willa is on the verge of learning something important. And by the end of the long summer, Willa, Nicky, and Horace each do something extraordinary and unforgettable.

The Facts And Fictions Of Minna Pratt

Facts and fictions are different truths. Minna Pratt stares at this message above her mother’s typewriter every day and tries to understand it. But how can she, when her mind is already so full? She wishes her mother would ask her normal questions like ‘How was your day?’ instead of ‘What is the quality of beauty?’ She wishes her brother, McGrew, could catch a baseball. She wishes she had a vibrato and could play Mozart on her cello the way he deserves to be played. Then she meets Lucas Ellerby. Minna thinks Lucas has the perfect life. His home runs smoothly and evenly. Dinner conversation is full of facts, and everyone always has matching socks to wear. So why is he so intrigued by her family?Minna doesn’t know, but as her friendship with Lucas grows, she discovers some important truths about herself and her family. In Patricia MacLachlan’s hope filled coming of age story Minna learns to value her family because of their eccentricities, and to value herself because of her own.

Journey

Journey is eleven the summer his mother leaves him and his sister, Cat, with their grandparents. He is sad and angry, and spends the summer looking for the clues that will explain why she left. Journey searches photographs for answers. He hunts family resemblances in Grandma’s albums. Looking for happier times, he tries to put together the torn pieces of the pictures his mother shredded before her departure. And he also searches the photographs his grandfather takes as the older man attempts to provide Journey with a past. In the process, the boy learns to look and finds that, for him, the camera is a means of finding things his naked eye has missed things like inevitability of his mother’s departure and the love that still binds his family.

Baby

The Newbery Award winning author of Sarah, Plain and Tall tells a story about a 12 year old girl and her family who find an abandoned baby in a basket in their driveway. A note promises the mother’s return, but Larkin and her family come to love the baby as their own.

Edward’s Eyes

Jake is a part of an extraordinary family. He has a life filled with art, music, and long summer nights on the Cape. He has hours and days and months of baseball. But, more than anything in this world, Jake knows he has Edward. From the moment he was born, Jake knew Edward was destined for something. Edward could make anyone laugh and everyone think. During one special year, he became the only one in the neighborhood who could throw a perfect knuckleball. It was a pitch you could not hit. That same year, Jake learned there are also some things you cannot hold. Patricia MacLachlan, one of the most beloved children’s book authors writing today, has painted a deeply stirring, delicately lyrical portrait of a child, a son, a family, and a brother. Through Edward’s Eyes, we see what gifts all of these things truly are to those around them, and how those gifts live on and grow.

The True Gift

All year long Lily and Liam look forward to Christmas on their grandparents’ farm. It’s always the perfect trip walking to the lilac library, trim*ming the tree, giving gifts. But this year, thanks to a white cow alone in the meadow, things will be different. This Christmas, Lily and Liam will find out the meaning of a true gift.

From one of our most beloved authors comes a brand new holiday classic that rings in the season by celebrating the joys of family, community, and true giving.

Word After Word After Word

Every school day feels the same for fourth graders Lucy and Henry and Evie and Russell and May. Then Ms. Mirabel comes to their class bringing magical words and a whole new way of seeing and understanding. From beloved author Patricia MacLachlan comes an honest, inspiring story about what is real and what is unreal, and about the ways that writing can change our lives and connect us to our own stories Word After Word After Word.

Kindred Souls

Jake’s grandfather, Billy, hears the talk of birds, is eighty eight years old, and is going to live forever. Even when Billy gets sick, Jake knows that everything will go on as always. But there s one thing Billy wants: to rebuild the sod house where he grew up. Can Jake give him this one special thing? From beloved author Patricia MacLachlan comes a poignant story about what we do for the ones we love, and how the bonds that hold us together also allow us to let each other go.

Through Grandpa’s Eyes

On John’s visits to Grandpa’s house, his blind grandfather shares with him the special way he sees and moves in the world. In addition to showing readers how the blind develop alternatives to sight, the story also stands as a warm picture of old’young bonding and simple family sharing.’ ‘BL.

Notable 1980 Children’s Trade Books in Social Studies NCSS/CBC
A Reading Rainbow Selection

The Sick Day

Everybody has good days and bad days. Today Emily is having a sick day. Her stomach aches and her throat feels sore. Fortunately Father is home to take care of her. He puts Emily to bed and tucks her in with her stuffed animals. But Emily wants more. She needs her blanket, and her favorite doll, and she wants her hair in ponytails. Father can barely keep up! And before either of them knows it, Emily and Father find they’ve turned this sick day into a special day together. From the Hardcover edition.

Moon, Stars, Frogs, and Friends

Randall the frog longs for a real friend and is delighted when he makes the acquaintance of an enchanted prince.

Three Names

A child’s great grandfather reminisces about the times he and his dog Three Names went to school on prairie roads in a wagon pulled by horses.

All the Places to Love

Within the sanctuary of a loving family, baby Eli is born and, as he grows, ‘learns to cherish the people and places around him, eventualy passing on what he has discovered to his new baby sister, Sylvie: ‘All the Places to Love are here…
no matter where you may live.’ This loving book will be something to treasure.”BL. ‘The quiet narrative is so intensely felt it commands attention…
. a lyrical celebration.”K. 1995 Teachers’ Choices IRA1995 Notable Trade Books in the Language Arts NCTENotable 1995 Children’s Trade Books in Social Studies NCSS/CBC

What You Know First

A child comes to terms with the fact that she and her family are leaving the prairie…
. As she talks herself into acceptance, her Mama helps her let go, commenting that the baby will need someone to tell him where he came from. So the girl gathers mementoes a bag of earth and a piece of cottonwood tree…
.A novel hides in these few pages. As with Sarah, Plain and Tall, the subext vibrates. So much is told in each perfectly chosen phrase. The story is deep and specific, but the pain and denial of a child leaving a known and loved place is all too universal. Moser’s finely wrought engravings, enhanced by moody tints, record the departure. SLJ. 1995 ‘Pick of the Lists’ ABA

Painting the Wind

What I have waited for all year long happens. Summer is here. On an island, surrounded by water and light, a young boy waits for the sun to shine, and for his friends, the painters, to return: The landscape painter and the painter of flowers. The painter of still lifes and the painter of faces. They all come to the island to paint when the days are long and their dogs can run free. The young boy watches and learns. This summer he will try to do what he has never done before. He will try to paint the wind. Newbery Medal winning and bestselling author Patricia MacLachlan teams up with her daughter Emily for their first collaboration. Their delicate yet evocative prose is brought to life by the exquisite paintings of artist Katy Schneider. Painting the Wind is a beautiful story about holding on to those perfect moments that only summer in a place that you love can offer.

Bittle

Nigel is a cat. He loves to chase mice and scratch rugs. Julia is a dog. She loves treats and bones and sleeping. They don’t need anything else…

but now they’ve got Bittle. She’s a new baby.

Who Loves Me?

A tender ode to unconditional love.

A little girl asks the same question she must ask every night before drifting off to sleep…
Who Loves Me??

The result is a soothing and tender good night tale brim*ming with heart, in which a little girl learns of the enormous love that surrounds her. Beloved author Patricia MacLachlan gives voice to that most elemental need, the need for love.

Newbery Medal winner Patricia MacLachlan’s words are brought to life by Amanda Shepherd’s playful and exquisitely painted illustrations. This inspired book of unconditional love and reassurance has all the makings of a classic.

Ages 4 8

Once I Ate a Pie

Gus herds his people like sheep.

Abby loves borrowing slippers.

And once, Mr. Beefy ate a pie.

It’s a dog’s life. Filled with squeaky toys, mischief, and plenty of naps. Every dog has a tail to wag and a tale to tell. Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest asked this collection of canines to speak up with their own words, barks, and yips.

Fiona Loves the Night

It is silent.

It is safe.

It is surprising.

Fiona Loves the Night.

I Didn’t Do It

What makes a puppy’s day complete?

Swimming and then shaking water all over you. Catching ‘presents’ for you and then bringing them inside the house. Rolling in your nice wool sweater. Snuggling in your lap.

In their second ode to canine companions, Patricia MacLachlan, Emily MacLachlan Charest, and Katy Schneider once again offer an irresistible glimpse into the mischievous canine mind. Captured here are adorable confessions and spirited accounts of the things that puppies do-and don’t do-while in search of love, adventure, and treats from the table.

Before You Came

Before You Came

This gentle, wonder-filled celebration is the perfect book for parents, children, and all those who have discovered the joy of sharing their world with someone new.

Luminous artwork by Caldecott Medalist David Diaz brings vibrant life to this lyrical reflection by the mother-daughter writing team of Newbery Medalist Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest.

Your Moon, My Moon

For many children who live far away from their grandparents, it can be hard to understand why they can’t always be together. Patricia MacLachlan has created a bridge to close the distance by finding connections in memories and the moon they share. A beautiful, lyrical poem coupled with Bryan Collier’s rich collages, Here and There celebrates the importance of staying close to your family, even across thousands of miles.

It’s Heaven to Be Seven (With: Roald Dahl,Judy Blume,,Beverly Cleary)

One of five anthologies that include stories by such beloved authors as Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, Paula Danziger, Patricia MacLachlan, E.B. White, Judy Blume, A.A. Milne, Syd Hoff, and more. Each collection targets its very own special age group will want to collect them all!

Acting Out

Six masterful children’s authors have become master playwrights in this collection of one act plays that might just make you want to ACT OUT! In The Raven, Sharon Creech spoofs a publishing office while Susan Cooper shows the environment fighting back against overdevelopment in The Dollop. Patricia MacLachlan puts a twist on detention in The Bad Room and Katherine Paterson gives us a new twist on a classic fairy tale in The Billionaire and the Bird. Richard Peck’s Effigy in the Outhouse is the story of schoolboys doing their best to trick a spooky substitute while Avi’s Not Seeing Is Believing has words playing tricks on everyone. With a star studded lineup of writers there’s a stage full of drama, comedy, and great storytelling waiting behind these curtains! Newbery Medal winning and beloved authors Avi, Susan Cooper, Sharon Creech, Patricia MacLachlan, Katherine Paterson, and Richard Peck have come together and written six original one act plays to be read, shared, and acted out by the audience they know best. The playwrights could write about anything and anyone they wanted, but one thing would need to tie the stories all together. Each author had to choose one word and share it with the group. These six words then had to be written into each of the plays. The words they chose were ‘dollop,’ ‘hoodwink,’ ‘Justin,’ ‘knuckleball,’ ‘panhandle,’ and ‘raven.’ To find out the funny, odd, and creative ways they were used…
Well, you’ll have to read for yourself.

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