Patricia MacLachlan (1938–) Biography

Born 1938, in Cheyenne, WY; Education: University of Connecticut, B.A., 1962.

Addresses

Office—Department of Education, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063. Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 E. 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

Career

Writer and educator. Bennett Junior High School, Manchester, CT, English teacher, 1963–79; Smith College, Northampton, MA, visiting lecturer, 1986–; writer. Lecturer; social worker; teacher of creative writing workshops for adults and children. Children's Aid Family Service Agency, board member, 1970–80.

Honors Awards

Golden Kite Award, Society of Children's Book Writers, 1980, for Arthur, for the Very First Time; Notable Book citation, American Library Association (ALA), 1980, for Arthur, for the Very First Time, 1984, for Unclaimed Treasures, 1984, for Sarah, Plain and Tall, and 1988, for The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt; Notable Children's Trade Book designation, National Council for Social Studies/Children's Book Council, 1980, for Through Grandpa's Eyes, 1982, for Mama One, Mama Two, and 1985, for Sarah, Plain and Tall; Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, 1984, for Unclaimed Treasures; Horn Book Honor List inclusion, 1984, for Unclaimed Treasures, and 1985, for Sarah, Plain and Tall; Golden Kite Award, Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award, one of School Library Journal's Best Books of the Year, and New York Times Notable Children's Books of the Year designation, all 1985, Newbery Medal, ALA, Jefferson Cup Award, Virginia Library Association, Christopher Award, and one of Child Study Association of America's Children's Books of the Year, all 1986, Garden State Children's Book Award, New Jersey Library Association, and Charlie May Simon Book Award, Elementary Council of the Arkansas Department of Education and International Board on Books for Young People Honor List nominee, both 1988, all for Sarah, Plain and Tall; Parents' Choice Award, Parents' Choice Foundation, 1988, and Horn Book Fanfare citation, 1989, for The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt; University of Southern Mississippi Medallion, for body of work; National Humanities Medal, 2002, for body of work.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

The Sick Day (picture book), illustrated by William Pene Du Bois, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1979.

Arthur, for the Very First Time (novel), illustrated by Lloyd Bloom, Harper (New York, NY), 1980.

Moon, Stars, Frogs, and Friends, illustrated by Tomie de Paola, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1980.

Through Grandpa's Eyes (picture book), illustrated by Deborah Ray, Harper (New York, NY), 1980.

Cassie Binegar (novel), Harper (New York, NY), 1982.

Mama One, Mama Two (picture book), illustrated by Ruth Lercher Bornstein, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.

Tomorrow's Wizard, illustrated by Kathy Jacobi, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.

Seven Kisses in a Row (picture book), illustrated by Maria Pia Marrella, Harper (New York, NY), 1983.

Unclaimed Treasures (novel), Harper (New York, NY), 1984.

Sarah, Plain and Tall (novel), Harper (New York, NY), 1985.

The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt (novel), Harper (New York, NY), 1988.

Journey, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Three Names, illustrated by Alexander Pertzoff, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

Baby, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1993.

All the Places to Love, paintings by Mike Wimmer, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Skylark (sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

What You Know First, engravings by Barry Moser, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

Caleb's Story (sequel to Skylark), Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2001.

(With daughter, Emily MacLachlan) Painting the Wind, illustrated by Katy Schneider, Joanna Cotler Books, (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Emily MacLachlan) Bittle, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino, Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2004.

More Perfect than the Moon (sequel to Caleb's Story), Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Who Loves Me?, illustrated by Amanda Shepherd, Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Emily MacLachlan) Once I Ate a Pie, illustrated by Katy Schneider, Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of Skylark (teleplay), CBS-TV, 1993; author of teleplay for Sarah, Plain and Tall, broadcast as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, 1991. Short fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Newbery Award Library II, edited by Joseph Krumgold, Harper (New York, NY), 1988.

Adaptations

Arthur, for the Very First Time was adapted as a filmstrip with cassette, Pied Piper, 1984; Sarah, Plain and Tall was adapted as a filmstrip with cassette, Random House, 1986, and as a television film starring Glenn Close, 1991; Mama One, Mama Two, Through Grandpa's Eyes, and The Sick Day were adapted as an audiocassette, Caedmon, 1987; Sarah, Plain and Tall was adapted as a musical by Julia Jordan, Nell Benjamin, and Laurence O'Keefe, and produced in New York, NY, 2002.

Sidelights

Patricia MacLachlan is known for her award-winning picture books and novels for children, which include The Sick Day; Arthur, for the Very First Time; Sarah, Plain and Tall; and The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt. Populated by eccentric, endearing characters and often focusing on family relationships, MacLachlan's works are considered to be tender, humorous, and perceptive. Though she usually concentrates on the realities of everyday life in her books, MacLachlan has also penned more fanciful tales such as Tomorrow's Wizard and Moon, Stars, Frogs, and Friends. Reviewers generally praise MacLachlan's work, indicating that her graceful, easy-to-read prose is particularly suitable for reading aloud and that her warm, optimistic stories both enlighten and entertain young readers. "MacLachlan is the critically acclaimed author of the kind of children's stories so compelling that readers clasp the book to their chest and sigh when the last page is turned," wrote Catherine Keefe in the Orange County Register.

Born in Wyoming and reared in Minnesota, MacLachlan was an only child. Her lack of siblings was offset by a strong relationship with her parents and an active imagination. MacLachlan's parents were teachers and they encouraged her to read; her mother urged her to "read a book and find out who you are," the author related in Horn Book. She did read voraciously, sometimes discussing and acting out scenes in books with her parents. As she recalled in Horn Book, "I can still feel the goose bumps as I, in the fur of Peter Rabbit, fled from the garden and Mr. McGregor—played with great ferocity by my father—to the coat closet…. Some days I would talk my father into acting out the book a dozen times in a row, with minor changes here and there or major differences that reversed the plot."

MacLachlan was also kept company by her imaginary friend, Mary, "who was real enough for me to insist that my parents set a place for her at the table," the author recalled in Horn Book. "Mary was a free spirit. She talked me into drawing a snail on the living room wall, larger and larger, so that the room had to be repainted…. My parents tolerated Mary with good humor, though I'm sure it was trying. Mary was ever present. 'Don't sit there,' I'd cry with alarm. 'Mary's there!' One of my early memories is of my father, negotiating with Mary for the couch after dinner."

Though she was creative enough to invent a friend and concoct elaborate fantasies, MacLachlan did not write stories as a child. The author remembers being intimidated by the intensely personal nature of writing. In an autobiographical essay in Authors and Adults for Young Adults, she confessed: "I was afraid of putting my own feelings and thoughts on a page for everyone to read. This is still a scary part of writing." She also noted in Horn Book that she believed "writers had all the answers." She continued, remembering a particular school assignment: "I wrote a story on a three by five card. I still have it: 'My cats have names and seem happy. Often they play. The end.' My teacher was not impressed. I was discouraged, and I wrote in my diary: 'I shall try not to be a writer.'"

Indeed, MacLachlan did not begin to write until years later, at the age of thirty-five. Married with children of her own, she kept busy by working with foster mothers at a family services agency and spending time with her family. As her children grew older, though, she "felt a need to do something else—go to graduate school or go back to teaching, perhaps," she once noted. "It dawned on me that what I really wanted to do was to write. How would I ever have the courage, I wondered. It was very scary to find myself in the role of student again, trying to learn something entirely new."

MacLachlan started her successful writing career by creating picture books. Her first, The Sick Day, details how a little girl with a cold is cared for by her father. Another work, Through Grandpa's Eyes, explores how a young boy is taught by his blind grandfather to "see" the world through his other senses. Mama One, Mama Two, a somewhat later book, takes a frank yet comforting look at mental illness and foster parenting. In it a girl is taken in by "Mama Two" while waiting for her natural mother, "Mama One," to recover from psychological problems. MacLachlan, praised for the simplicity and sensitivity she brings to these stories, is especially noted for her deft handling of unconventional subject matter.

Encouraged by her editor, MacLachlan also started to write novels intended for a slightly older audience than her picture books. She once commented on the differences between the two genres: "It is more difficult to write a picture book than a novel. A good picture book is much like a poem: concise, rich, bare-boned, and multileveled…. When I want to stretch into greater self-indulgence, I write a novel."

MacLachlan's first novel, Arthur, for the Very First Time, tells of a young boy's emotional growth during the summer he spends with his great-uncle and greataunt. In an interview with Ann Courtney in Language Arts, MacLachlan commented that she particularly enjoyed writing Arthur, for the Very First Time. "At the time Arthur was an intensely personal thing. I knew I was writing about a lot of me, a lot of my family, a lot of what I was thinking about at the time."

Evaluations of Arthur, for the Very First Time were favorable, as critics commended MacLachlan's realistic characters and her sincere yet entertaining look at childhood problems. "Fine characterization, an intriguing mix of people and problems, and the author's remarkable knack for leaving between the lines things best unsaid are some of the strengths of the novel," maintained Booklist reviewer Judith Goldberger. Zena Sutherland echoed the sentiment in her review of Arthur, for the Very First Time in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, commenting: "The story has a deep tenderness, a gentle humor, and a beautifully honed writing style."

MacLachlan again addresses a child's resistance to change in her second novel, Cassie Binegar. Part of a large, somewhat disorganized, but happy family, Cassie finds herself longing for the serenity found in her friend Mary Margaret's home. Growing up is suddenly a much more difficult task, as Cassie begins to self-consciously compare herself and her family with other examples around her. At the core of most of her problems is a fear of change, and this comes to the fore when the family moves and Cassie's aging grandmother, among other relatives, comes to stay with the Binegars. Horn Book reviewer Ann A. Flowers described MacLachlan's text in Cassie Binegar as "elegant and evocative." School Library Journal contributor Wendy Dellett found the characters in the novel "pleasant and kindly" and the author's writing "luminous and readable."

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A character in Arthur, for the Very First Time provided the seed for MacLachlan's best-known work, Sarah, Plain and Tall. Aunt Mag in Arthur was a mail-order bride (a woman who, in past times, attained a husband by answering a newspaper advertisement), as was a distant relative of MacLachlan's. In Sarah, Plain and Tall the title character answers a newspaper advertisement and as a result goes to visit a lonely widower and his children on the midwestern prairie. When Sarah arrives, the children take to her immediately and hope she will stay and marry their father. Considered a poignant and finely wrought tale, Sarah, Plain and Tall garnered widespread critical acclaim; MacLachlan received a Newbery Medal for the novel in 1986. Margery Fisher, a Growing Point contributor, deemed the book a "small masterpiece."

"My mother told me early on about the real Sarah," stated MacLachlan in her Newbery Medal acceptance speech, "who came from the coast of Maine to the prairie to become a wife and mother to a close family member…. So the fact of Sarah was there for years, though the book began as books often do, when the past stepped on the heels of the present; or backward, when something now tapped something then." Shortly before two of her children were to leave for college, MacLachlan's parents took the family on a trip to the prairie where they, and MacLachlan, were born. This trip made the connection between the past and the present more evident to both MacLachlan and her mother, who was beginning to lose her memory because of Alzheimer's disease.

"When I began Sarah," continued MacLachlan in her speech, "I wished for several things and was granted something unexpected. Most of all I wished to write my mother's story with spaces, like the prairie, with silences that could say what words could not…. But books, like children, grow and change, borrowing bits and pieces of the lives of others to help make them who and what they are. And in the end we are all there, my mother, my father, my husband, my children, and me. We gave my mother better than a piece of her past. We gave her the same that Anna and Caleb and Jacob received—a family."

MacLachlan's first novel after winning the Newbery was The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt. Eleven-year-old Minna, teetering on the edge of adolescence, finds herself confronted with numerous changes as she strives to develop a vibrato. While she practices her cello to attain this dream, Minna also longs for her eccentric mother, a writer, to be more like a "mother." In the midst of all this appears Lucas Ellerby, a violinist who has the quiet and peaceful home Minna desires. Lucas, on the other hand, is fascinated with the unusual ways of Minna's family, and the two experience their first romance. "MacLachlan has created a wonderfully wise and funny story with such satisfying depths and unforgettable characters that one is reluctant to let it go," praised a Horn Book reviewer. Heather Vogel Frederick, writing in the New York Times Book Review, declared: "If writers of children's fiction were organized into a guild, the title of master craftsman would be bestowed upon Patricia MacLachlan. Her crisp, elegant prose and superb storytelling ability … grace … The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt."

MacLachlan continued to hone her realistic storytelling skills with two tales of loss—Journey and Baby. The former concerns a young boy named Journey who must come to terms with having been abandoned by his mother. Journey and his sister Cat have always lived with their grandparents, but it is only recently that their mother has left them. Each member of the family copes with the abandonment differently, and piecing together some old photographs of his mother enables Journey to attain the love that he seeks. Nancy Bray Cardozo wrote in the New York Times Book Review: "The language Ms. MacLachlan uses is beautiful, emotionally articulate. Journey speaks as though an eloquent adult is reminiscing about a childhood tragedy, the sadness still keenly remembered." Baby is also about a family dealing with tragedy. Shortly after twelve-year-old Larkin's infant brother dies, his family finds a baby girl, Sophie, abandoned on their driveway. Once the members of the family break down and let Sophie into their hearts, despite the fact that her mother will be coming back for her, they are finally able to grieve for their recent loss. "MacLachlan's style remains masterly," concluded a Publishers Weekly commentator. "It is difficult to read her sentences only once, and even more difficult to part from her novel."

Skylark, which first appeared in 1994, is the sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall, and invites inevitable comparison to the original, wrote Mary M. Burns in Horn Book. Skylark, however, "does not suffer in such a pairing [with the original], for it has its own center and momentum," Burns concluded. A terrible drought has overwhelmed Sarah and Jacob Witting's farm. The crops wither and die, drinking water is scarce, neighbors leave for better conditions elsewhere, and the barn is burned in a freak rainless lightning strike. "Sarah is increasingly on edge, not so firmly rooted as her husband, Jacob," wrote a Publishers Weekly critic. "She cries out that Jacob 'once said his name was written in this land, but mine isn't. It isn't!'" To alleviate their problems, Sarah, along with children Anna and Caleb, goes to visit her aunts in coastal Maine, where water is plentiful and life is easier than on a hardscrabble farm in the plains. The only connection Sarah and the children have with the farm is letters from Jacob, until one day he appears in Maine to collect his family. Rain has come to the farm, and Sarah is expecting a new baby. With renewed hope, the family returns to the farm, where Sarah symbolically writes her own name in the land. "Skylark is one sequel that is as successful as the original," Burns wrote. "This stirring novel's flawlessly crafted dialogue and imagery linger long after the final, hopeful message is delivered" by young Caleb, "who looks forward to arrival of spring and of his new sibling," wrote the Publishers Weekly reviewer.

In Caleb's Story, young Caleb from Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark narrates the continuing story of the Witting family. Anna has moved to town to attend school and work for the local doctor, while the newest arrival to the family, Cassie, grows up on the farm. One day, Jacob's father, who had abandoned his farm and his family and who Jacob thought was dead, returns, igniting a difficult conflict between father and son. Finally it emerges that Jacob's father is illiterate, which may have contributed to his past actions. Now Caleb takes on the task of teaching his grandfather to read, and Sarah urges Jacob to find the courage to forgive. In the book, "the relationships are believable, the emotions ring true, and MacLachlan has an unabated gift for clean, well-honed dialogue that carries its resonant meanings with unusual grace," wrote a Horn Book reviewer. A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked that "MacLachlan's appreciative readers will savor this new ad-dition to the chronicle of a delightful family" while hoping for more volumes in the ever-growing series.

The Witting family's saga is continued in More Perfect than the Moon, which is narrated by Cassie, now eight years old and a budding writer. In her journal she records the things that happen to her family and her feelings about them, as well as the stories she makes up for herself. Many of her entries are about the impending arrival of a new younger brother or sister, an event that Cassie is not looking forward to. She is convinced that the baby will be "ugly and mean," and wishes instead for a pet lamb. Yet by the time that baby is born, Cassie agrees with Sarah that the new child is a gift "more perfect than the moon." "The tale is charming," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, "and Cassie is a delightful narrator." As Kay Weisman commented in Booklist, "Solid, believable characters face classic dilemmas, yet the ending feels neither pat nor predictable."

In general, critics found More Perfect than the Moon a fitting addition to the series. "In true MacLachlan fashion, the spare, graceful writing sparkles with fresh images," Caroline Ward wrote in School Library Journal, and Horn Book contributor Christine M. Heppermann noted that "as usual, MacLachlan infuses her story with graceful, affectionate images of life on the prairie."

Echoing the unwilling separation from home explored in Skylark, MacLachlan's What You Know First tells the story of a girl whose parents have been forced to sell their farm and move elsewhere. Heartbroken, she begins to catalogue the things about the farm and the country that she will miss, and even tries to come up with reasons for not moving. In the end, she cannot avoid the inevitable, but she takes some tangible reminders with her: a bag of prairie dirt and cuttings from a beloved cottonwood tree. The book "touches the heart," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. MacLachlan is a real-life example of the character in the story: she also carries a bag of prairie dirt with her wherever she goes, to remind her of where she came from. "It is the prairie dirt—clutched in a plastic sandwich bag, dusty and twiggy and brown, toted everywhere that MacLachlan goes—that speaks volumes about the connection between her own life and her work," Keefe observed.

MacLachlan has also undertaken collaborations with her daughter, Emily. In Painting the Wind, a young painter finds inspiration from the dozens of other painters who migrate to his island and work at their easels every summer. As Lee Bock noted in School Library Journal, "Evocative descriptions bring life and individuality to each artist." At summer's end, an exhibition from all the artists lets the narrator find new ways to look at his work and appreciate the work of others. Painting the Wind "bears insights into how artists look at their world, and their work, and will broaden children's understanding of how and why art is made," a Kirkus Reviews critic remarked. Booklist reviewer Julie Cummins also thought that the book "gets to the heart of creativity in a way children will understand," and a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: "This thoughtful volume conveys a respect for and understanding of the many ways the creative process manifests itself."

Mother and daughter also teamed up for Bittle, another book about older siblings coping with the arrival of a new baby. However, in this case the "siblings" are not children, but instead are a cat named Nigel and a pessimistic hound dog named Julia. The animals are initially disdainful of "Bittle," as they dub the "little bit of a thing" their owners bring home, but they eventually come to enjoy her presence. The tale is told with "vim and humor," declared a Kirkus Reviews critic, while School Library Journal reviewer Kelley Rae Unger noted that "the authors cleverly highlight the changes a new baby brings to a home."

MacLachlan is also the author of Who Loves Me?, a picture book about a little girl and her cat. As the girl gets ready to go to bed, she asks her cat, "Who loves me?" Each time, the cat replies with the name of someone who loves her and evidence that they do. "The lyrical text rises and falls in waves and curves, echoing the cat's tail," remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Catherine Threadgill, writing in School Library Journal, also praised the text, noting that "MacLachlan's cozy, comforting dialogue meanders like a song."

As with the mail-order bride in Sarah, Plain and Tall, MacLachlan often gleans elements of her stories from personal experience. As she once explained, "My books derive chiefly from my family life, both as a child with my own parents as well as with my husband and kids. The Sick Day … could happen in almost any family. Mama One, Mama Two comes from my experiences with foster mothers and the children they cared for." MacLachlan also noted in Horn Book that "the issues of a book are the same issues of life each day. What is real and what is not? How do you look at the world? How do I?" Sometimes the influence of the author's life on her work is unconscious; scenes from her childhood appear on her pages, episodes that she thought she had invented but that had actually happened. Once, she described an unusual tablecloth in one of her books, thinking she had made up the cloth's design; she later discovered that her mother had used a virtually identical tablecloth when MacLachlan was a child.

MacLachlan is heartened by children's reactions to her work; she once noted that "it's hugely gratifying to know that kids all over read what I write." Affirming the importance of encouraging young writers, the author visits schools to speak with students and give writing workshops. "In my experience, children believe that writers are like movie stars. I am often asked if I arrived in a limousine," MacLachlan remarked. "I admit that sometimes I'm a little flattered at the exalted idea kids have about writers. But more importantly, I feel it's crucial that kids who aspire to write understand that I have to rewrite and revise as they do. Ours is such a perfectionist society—I see too many kids who believe that if they don't get it right the first time, they aren't writers."

"I think the children often think they don't have very exciting lives that are worth writing about," MacLachlan commented on the Random House Web site. "I just tell them that that's what we write about—we make them more interesting by writing about them. We change our lives in our books in a way, and that's the most exciting thing about writing about your own life. Kids get very excited when they hear that because they can change their own lives in their stories."

When asked what advice she would have for beginning writers, MacLachlan commented in Language Arts, "I would certainly say only write books for children if you really love children's books and want to do it. Writing for children is special because I think children read with a great true belief in what they're reading. The other thing is to read. One must understand the far reaches of children's books because they're really about many of the same subjects as adults are concerned with. Don't be condescending. I hate the didacticism that sometimes comes through in children's books. I would read and read and read. There is no better model than a good book."