Books like 'Sarah, Plain and Tall'
Readers who enjoyed Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century action / adventure historical-fiction classics children family realistic western literary-fiction
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Pather Panchali: Song of the Road by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPather Panchali deals with the life of the Roy family, consisting of Harihar, Sarbajaya, Apu and Durga, both in their ancestral village Nishchindipur in rural Bengal and later when they move to Varanasi in search of a better life, as well as the anguish and loss they face during their travels... -
Home in the Woods by Eliza Wheeler
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis stunningly beautiful picture book from New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Eliza Wheeler is based on her grandmother's childhood and pays homage to a family's fortitude as they discover the meaning of home... -
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 72 ratings“My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family.”Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family grief historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction poverty realistic -
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 77 ratingsThe beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction poverty realistic -
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La casa del bosque by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsWolves and panthers and bears roamed the deep Wisconsin woods in the 1860's. Still, Laura Ingalls' father preferred to live miles away from the nearest neighbors. So Pa built a snug cabin for Ma, Laura, Mary and Baby Carrie. He hunted and trapped and farmed. Ma made her own cheese and sugar...Categorized as:
animals children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction -
Centennial by James A. Michener
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 31 ratings"Michener is America's best writer, and he proves it once again in CENTENNIAL."THE PITTSBURGH PRESSA stunning panorama of the West, CENTENNIAL is an enthralling celebration of our country, brimming with the glory and the greatness of the American past that only bestselling author James Michener could bring to stunning life... -
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsStegner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of personal, historical, and geographic discovery Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America's western frontier. But his research reveals even more about his own life than he's willing to admit... -
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsThe adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as they leave their little house on the prairie and travel in their covered wagon to Minnesota. They settle into a house made of sod on the banks of beautiful Plum Creek. Soon Pa builds them a sturdier house, with real glass windows and a hinged door. Laura and Mary go to school, help with the chores around the house, and fish in the creek...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic -
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsSet in the 1870's, these American classics present an authentic description of life in the uncharted West, and offer an intimate perspective on growing up during those trying times...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic -
Castelul fetei in alb by Constantin Chiriță
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLaura este o fată nou venită în orășel care vrea să se împrietenească cu renumiții Cireșari. Din păcate, bunica ei îi interzice acest lucru, așa că Laura pornește singură către Castelul celor două cruci. Ea ajunge la castel, dar este capturată și facută prizonieră acolo. Ea le trimite un bilet Cireșarilor care urmează un traseu foarte încâlcit...Categorized as:
classics children coming-of-age realistic fiction action-adventure young-adult children-books -
Madeline and the Bad Hat by Ludwig Bemelmans
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Spanish Ambassador has moved next door, and Madeline knows right away that his son, Pepito, is bad news...Categorized as:
animals children classics family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, Frank Scardino
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWith their mothers, a little girl and a bear cub pick blueberries in the country. Wandering astray, however, each one mistakes the other's mother for her own...Categorized as:
animals children classics family literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe fourth book in Arthur Ransome's classic series for children, Winter Holiday takes intrepid explorers John, Susan, Titty, and Roger Walker, and fearsome Amazon pirates Nancy and Peggy Blackett to the North Pole. Joined by budding novelist Dorethes Callum and her scientist brother Dick, the children plan an "Arctic" expedition...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAlec Ramsay is the sole human survivor of a devastating shipwreck. Trapped on a deserted island, Alec finds his only companion is a horse, beautiful, unbroken, and savage . . . a horse whose beauty matches his wild spirit.This first classic story of the Black Stallion, full of action, excitement, and suspense, has set the pace for horse stories for sixty years . .Categorized as:
animals children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
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These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Cherry Jones
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsLaura is teaching school, and it's terrifying! Most of the students are taller than she is, and she must sleep away from home for the first time. Laura is miserable, but the money is needed to keep Mary in a college for the blind. Every Friday—no matter what the weather—Almanzo Wilder arrives to take Laura home to her family for the weekend...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic -
The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright, Pamela Dillman
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSYNOPSIS: Meet the Melendys! Mona, the eldest, is thirteen. She has decided to become an actress and can recite poetry at the drop of a hat. Rush is twelve and a bit mischievous. Miranda is ten and a half. She loves dancing and painting pictures. Oliver is the youngest. At six, he is a calm and thoughful person... -
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsLaura is almost fifteen. The long winter is over. With spring comes socials, dances, and "Literaries." There is also work to be done. Laura spends many hours each day sewing shirts to help send Mary to a college for the blind. But, in the evenings, Laura makes time for a new caller, Almazo Wilder...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic -
Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsClad ln a doeskin, alone and unafraid, she stood straight and proud before the onrushlng Forces of America’s destiny: Sacajawea. child of a Shoshoni chief, lone woman on Lewis and Clark‘s historic trek-beautiful spear of a dying nation.She knew many men, walked many miles...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction industrial-era realistic western 20th-century action-adventure -
Demelza by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDemelza, the miner's daughter that Poldark rescued from a fairground rabble, is now his wife. Demelza's efforts to adapt to the ways of the gentry bring her confusion and heartache, despite the joy in the birth of their first child. Additionally the seeds of dispute with Warleggan are sown... -
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSent in 1910 to live with distant relatives who own a rubber plantation along the Amazon River, English orphan Maia is excited. She believes she is in for brightly colored macaws, enormous butterflies, and "curtains of sweetly scented orchids trailing from the trees." Her British classmates warn her of man-eating alligators and wild, murderous Indians... -
Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOrdered to hold an abandoned army post, John Dunbar found himself alone, beyond the edge of civilization. Thievery and survival soon forced him into the Indian camp, where he began a dangerous adventure that changed his life forever. Relive the adventure and beauty of the incredible movie, Dances with Wolves...Categorized as:
animals classics historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic western 20th-century -
A River Runs Through it and Other Stories by Norman Maclean, Annie Proulx
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsJust as Norman Maclean writes at the end of "A River Runs through It" that he is "haunted by waters," so have readers been haunted by his novella. A retired English professor who began writing fiction at the age of 70, Maclean produced what is now recognized as one of the classic American stories of the twentieth century...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic western -
King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian by Marguerite Henry
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHe was named "Sham" for the sun, this golden red stallion born in the Sultan of Morocco's stone stables. Upon his heel was a small white spot, the symbol of speed. But on his chest was the symbol of misfortune. Although he was as swift as the desert winds, Sham's proud pedigree would be scorned all his life by cruel masters and owners...Categorized as:
animals children classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as they move from their little house on the banks of Plum Creek to the wilderness of the unsettled Dakota Territory. Here Pa works on the new railroad until he finds a homestead claim that is perfect for their new little house...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic -
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The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsA VERY classic from Eric Carle, creator of The Very Hungry CaterpillarEarly one morning a little spider spins her web on a fence post. One by one, the animals of the nearby farm try to distract her, yet the busy little spider keeps diligently at her work... -
Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World by Richard Scarry
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratings33 lively stories about everyday life around the world... -
Bambi by Bob Grant
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsDisney...Categorized as:
animals children classics coming-of-age family 20th-century action-adventure anthropomorphism -
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsOn the empty winter prairie, gray clouds to the northwest meant only one thing: a blizzard was seconds away. The first blizzard came in October. It snowed almost without stopping until April. The temperature dropped to forty below. Snow reached the roof-tops. And no trains could get through with food and coal. The townspeople began to starve. The Ingalls family barely lived through that winter...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic -
Laddie: A True Blue Story: By Gene Stratton-Porter - Illustrated by Gene Stratton-Porter
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings1913. Stratton-Porter was an American feminist, environmentalist, photographer and one of Indiana's most famous female authors. Many of her writings were moralistic and romantic novels. Laddie is a wonderful child's book and is thought to be based on her brother Leander who drowned in the Wabash River. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty or faded...Categorized as:
animals children classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
Sackett by Louis L'Amour
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA drifter by circumstance, William Tell Sackett hungered for a place he couldn’t name but knew he had to find. South of the Tetons, through a keyhole pass, he found it: a lonely yet beautiful valley—with a fortune in gold. Then he found an even greater treasure: Ange Kerry, a courageous and resourceful woman... -
A Girl Of The Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDeeply wounded by her embittered mother's lack of sympathy for her aspirations, Elnora finds comfort in the nearby Limberlost Swamp, whose beauty and rich abundance provide her with the means to better her life...Categorized as:
animals children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction -
The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald, Mercer Mayer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe best con man in the Midwest is only ten years old. Tom, a.k.a., the Great Brain, is a silver-tongued genius with a knack for turning a profit. When the Jenkins boys get lost in Skeleton Cave, the Great Brain saves the day...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction industrial-era realistic western 20th-century -
Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA beloved classic gets a beautiful new look.Lassie is Joe's prize collie and constant companion. But when Joe's father loses his job, Lassie must be sold. Three times she escapes from her new owner, and three times she returns home to Joe, until finally she is taken to the remotest part of Scotland—too far a journey for any dog to make alone.But Lassie is not just any dog...Categorized as:
animals children classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
Forty Guns West by William W. Johnstone
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Friendly Place... During a trip back east for a family reunion, Preacher learns that even the civilized midwest can attract a motherlode of trouble... especially when a gang of local bully boys decides to pick a fight. Now, wealthy landowner Elam Parks lies dead -- and there's a $5,000 reward on the head of the man accused: the first mountain man. ..Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era western 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
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The Fields by Conrad Richter
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsConrad Richter's trilogy of novels The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and The Town (1950) trace the transformation of Ohio from wilderness to farmland to the site of modern industrial civilization, all in the lifetime of one character. The Fields continues the saga of the Luckett family that began in The Trees... -
The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRobin was always wandering off (her mother's words) to get away from the confusion she felt inside her. It was not until Robin's father found a permanent job at the McCurdy ranch, after three years as a migrant worker, that Robin had a place to wander to...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Place: Nebraska.The time: the 1870's, when every day on the prairie brought its threat -of hostile Indians, of prairie fires, of blizzards, and the overwhelming threat of accident or illness to the little homesteading family, Will and Abbie Deal and their babies...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction western -
The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsConsidered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish pioneers in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith Lizzie’s father fighting in World War II, her mother takes on the job of a zoo keeper to provide for her family. Lizzie, her mother, and her eight-year-old brother Karli have become especially attached to an orphaned elephant named Marlene...Categorized as:
animals children coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
Jubal Sackett: The Sacketts by Louis L'Amour
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Jubal Sackett, the second generation of Louis L’Amour’s great American family pursues a destiny in the wilderness of a sprawling new land. Jubal Sackett’s urge to explore drove him westward, and when a Natchez priest asks him to undertake a nearly impossible quest, Sackett ventures into the endless grassy plains the Indians call the Far Seeing Lands...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction industrial-era western 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson, Paul Howard
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsPlop is a baby Barn Owl.He is the same as every baby Barn Owl there has ever been - except for one thing ...- He is afraid of the dark... -
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom its first magnificent sentence, "In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing," to the last, "I am haunted by waters," "A River Runs Through It" is an American classic...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic western 20th-century -
The Box-Car Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe Boxcar Children is a children's literary franchise originally created and written by American writer and first-grade school teacher,[1] Gertrude Chandler Warner. Today, the series includes well over 100 titles. The series is aimed at readers in grades 2-6... -
Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freedman, Nancy Freedman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA moving love story set in the Canadian wilderness, Mrs. Mike is a classic tale that has enchanted millions of readers worldwide. It brings the fierce, stunning landscape of the Great North to life—and tenderly evokes the love that blossoms between Sergeant Mike Flannigan and beautiful young Katherine Mary O'Fallon...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic western -
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The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Education of Little Tree tells of a boy orphaned very young, who is adopted by his Cherokee grandmother and half-Cherokee grandfather in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee during the Great Depression...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction realistic -
Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era by Sterling North
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe author recalls his carefree life in a small midwestern town at the close of World War I, and his adventures with his pet raccoon, Rascal...Categorized as:
animals children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor all of her nine years, fragile Elizabeth Ann has heard her Aunt Frances refer in whispers to her "horrid Putney cousins." But when her aunt can no longer care for her, Elizabeth Ann must leave her sheltered life to live in the wilds of Vermont with those distant relatives...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe concluding volume of the Border trilogy. In this magnificent new novel, the National Book Award-winning author of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing fashions a darkly beautiful elegy for the American frontier. It is 1952 and John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are working as ranch hands in New Mexico, not far from the proving grounds of Alamogordo and the cities of El Paso and Juarez... -
Bambi by Felix Salten
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe Prince of the ForestBambi's life in the woods begins happily. There are forest animals to play with -- Friend Hare, the chattery squirrel, the noisy screech owl, and Bambi's twin cousins, frail Gobo and beautiful Faline.But winter comes, and Bambi learns that the woods hold danger -- and things he doesn't understand. The first snowfall makes food hard to find...Categorized as:
animals children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century -
Long Summer Day by R.F. Delderfield
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPaul Craddock is still young when he is invalided out of the army after the Boer War and he discovers the neglected estate of Shallowford in a secluded corner of Devon. It seems remote from the march of progress. But as storm clouds gather over Europe, Paul learns that no part of England, however remote, can escape the challenge of the times...
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