Patricia MacLachlan

Patricia MacLachlan (1938–2022) was an American children’s author best known for her novel Sarah, Plain and Tall, which won the 1986 Newbery Medal. Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on March 3, 1938, she published her first novel, Through Grandpa’s Eyes, in 1980 and went on to write more than sixty novels and picture books for young readers, often focusing on family life and the relationships between children and adults. She taught children’s literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and in 2003 received the National Humanities Medal for her contributions to literature.

MacLachlan’s works include the Sarah, Plain and Tall sequence—Sarah, Plain and Tall, Skylark, Caleb’s Story, and More Perfect Than the Moon—as well as stand-alone novels such as Arthur, For the Very First Time, Unclaimed Treasures, Journey, Baby, Tomorrow’s Wizard, and picture books she sometimes co-wrote with her daughter Emily. Sarah, Plain and Tall was adapted into a Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. MacLachlan died on March 31, 2022, in Massachusetts at the age of 84.