Sarah Bishop

by Scott O'Dell

Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother, who take opposite sides in the War of Independence, Sarah Bishop flees from the British who seek to arrest her and struggles to shape a new life for herself in the wilderness.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Historical, Childrens, Classics, Middle Grade

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Scott O'Dell was an American author celebrated for his historical fiction, especially novels for young readers. He is best known for Island of the Blue Dolphins, a classic that earned the Newbery Medal and has been translated into many languages and adapted for film. Over his career he wrote more than two dozen novels for young people, as well as works of nonfiction and adult fiction, often drawing on the history and landscapes of California and Mexico. His books, including The King’s Fifth, The Black Pearl, and Sing Down the Moon, earned him multiple Newbery Honors and a wide readership. O'Dell received numerous awards for his contribution to children’s literature, among them the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Regina Medal. In 1984, he established the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction to encourage outstanding works in the genre.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different perspective on the Revolutionary War

This is a difficult book for me to review. I liked that it was about a character who was neither pro- nor anti- Independence, instead she despised the war simply because of how it entirely disrupted her life (like her father and brother both dying because of their opposite convictions) I enjoyed the book and her fortitude. You don't get "in her head" much, but O'Dell still communicates her conflicting emotions, particularly by the way she interacts with her Bible. Toward the end of the book it seems like there may be a love interest beginning, but nothing ever happens with it. I think I liked that - so many books have a love interest now its cliche, why couldn't she have finally found someone who is just willing to be her friend despite her odd tendencies? The book ends on a hopeful note, but is still overall a melancholy work.

I didn't know until sometime after reading this book that it was supposed to be based off a true story. Knowing this made me glad that we don't get "inside her head" - I hate ascribing thoughts to real people in fiction because we don't know their thoughts unless they left them for us in a diary. After discovering this is supposedly based on the life of a real Sarah Bishop, I did some superficial research to find out the true story to see how O'Dell's compares.

As sad and melancholy as O'Dell's telling of Sarah's story is, it appears to be a possibly happier version than reality. It's hard to know, though, because not much was recorded of her life, and she always was an enigma to the townspeople nearby. In that, O'Dell did well with what we can surmise about Sarah's life in building a story that is interesting, adds some fictional components in, but doesn't lead us to believe too much more than what limited sources tell us. In my quick search for the facts, these were the four most helpful pieces (two written by people who interacted with her), if anyone is interested in learning more about the true, but largely unknown, story:
http://ridgefielddiscovery.org/page/s...
http://www.sarahbishop.org/about-sara...
http://www.sarahbishop.org/about-sara...
http://greensleeves.typepad.com/berks...

3.5 stars

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sarah Bishop is a young girl who has no interest in the coming American Revolutionary War. However, this is not how her father and her brother feel. Her father is a Loyalist, siding with the British, and her brother, is a Patriot. Her brother leaves the house, and soon, her father is tarred and feathered. Sarah realizes that she must leave. She then goes to New York City to try to find her brother, but the British wrongly accuse Sarah of a crime and so Sarah escapes into the wilderness. The rest of the book is a survival book that describes Sarah's life in the cave that she calls home. She does not learn much about the war except for through a couple of travelers that come close to her home. Sarah likes it this way because she is upset that the war has disrupted her life even though she didn't even care about the war. While in the wilderness, Sarah finds an internal strength that she did not know she had as she fight to survive in this new life.
I found that this book was very slow paced. I felt that most of the interesting action took place in the beginning of the book, and then the majority of the focus was on Sarah's survival and adventures in the wilderness and cave. Even though many list this book as historical fiction, which I understand that it is because of the time period and some of the names that are dropped. I found it more of an adventure/survival book because that is what majority of the plot focuses on.
While most of it took place in the the wilderness, I found that it was very hard to connect with the character. I think it is because O'Dell focuses on the actions of what Sarah does in the cave rather than the thoughts and feelings that Sarah has. I don't get to get into her head, I just get to see what she does.
While this was not my favorite book, I understand that different people have different tastes, so I would recommend this book to students in grades 5-8th. I would not recommend it to someone looking for historical fiction, but I would recommend it to someone who was looking for an adventure book or survival book that has a female main character. It will also have to be someone that can stand a slow-paced book.

[Kellyn Roth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sarah Bishop by Scott O’Dell is set in the era we’re currently reading about in school and showing a different side of the American Revolution from what you normally see.

It offers you a different perspective, but unfortunately is not a very good book - slow to start, too quick once it gets going, then unbearably dull from perhaps 50% on, offering readers nothing new. Basically, it’s the day-to-day life of a girl surviving alone in the woods. I suppose if you know nothing about the woods or how to live off them, it might be somewhat informative, but otherwise? No, thank you!

Then comes the ending (finally), but (although I wasn’t very attached to the characters, including Sarah - the only character we really stay with for any length of time - who was annoying and oftentimes foolish) the ending is incredibly disappointing. It’s one of those books that just STOPS. Was some great meaning supposed to be portrayed? Maybe ... but I sure didn't see it.

Overall, a book I didn’t enjoy or look forward to reading.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book about the Revolutionary War and a reminder that not everyone wanted to separate from England. We often view the British soldiers as the bad guys. However, there were certainly a lot of "rebels" who were lawless and horrible as Sarah experienced!! My kids loved the book but we were all disappointed by the ending - it felt almost as if Scott O'Dell ran out of steam and just ended the book. Of course, some might say that it is up to the reader to decide what Sarah chose, but I guess my children and I wanted more closure!!

March 28, 2021: It's always a good reminder that not all citizens of the colonies were for the revolution. It saddens me that Sarah's family was targeted because her father sided with the king and did not want to revolt against his country (England). I can totally understand why she chose to live away from civilization after her father's death, her brother's incarceration, and her arrest. I'd lose my faith in humanity too. It was such a horrible slap in the face that she helped Sam Goshen after he stupidly got himself caught in a bear trap, and then he turned her in for being a witch. Ugh! The fact that the word of such a shady character could so drastically affect her very life. As for the fact that she talked to the bat and muskrat who lived with her speaks to her loneliness and not that she is a witch. If talking to a pet makes me a witch, I guess I'm in trouble. However, my dogs listen to me without judgement, unlike so many people. I'm glad she found a friend in Isaac, and I wish I could know what happened to them after the book ended.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading "Carlota" and disliking it so much that I threw it away, I wondered if "Island of the Blue Dolphins" might be the only O'Dell book I would like. Glad to report that "Sarah Bishop" met my expectations and redeemed O'Dell for me.

[Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh to live alone in cave with only a three footed muskrat and a white bat to keep me company

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

What can one do when caught between warring parties in a fight that has little to do with oneself? What is a teenaged girl like Sarah Bishop supposed to do in the dawning days of the American Revolution, personally not believing or caring about the political differences between Whigs and Tories, but nonetheless wrapped up in their drama against her own will?

Novels about the circumstances and characters—both real and fictional—of the Revolutionary War are not scarce, but Sarah Bishop sort of heads down an alternate route to the ones most frequently explored in literature about the time period. The chief concern of Sarah Bishop's life is to get away from the pain and fear of war, to find some safe place to hide away so that the heat of battle can blow right over top of her and leave her in peace, whenever it is that the last musket shot is fired. It's not as easy as that to chase after peace in such tumultuous political times, however. Sarah is harangued over and over by people tied in with the war as well as those who have little to no stake in the outcome at all, from soldiers to store owners to peddlers to Quakers. When she suddenly finds herself directly confronted by British soldiers and accused of the crime of burning down a jailhouse in an attempt to affect the escape of her soldier brother, Sarah has reached the limit of her patience. She sets out on her own with the initial assistance of a military man who had been indirectly responsible for the false accusation against her, and takes flight from the British authorities to find a peaceful place to abide.

Sarah Bishop is a novel of surprisingly little actual involvement with the Revolutionary War. Apart from a few vague snippets of news carried to Sarah by visitors who happen upon the cave she eventually establishes as her residency, she knows hardly anything about the war's progression. And that's the way she wants it. Sarah has become embittered by the grossly unfair situations she has had to deal with, and no longer wishes to live around people. When the Quakers of a nearby town begin to suspect Sarah, a girl living alone in a cave, of practicing witchcraft, she is once again a target for people around her who don't want to accept what they can't understand. How can Sarah trust anyone again after the trials she has faced? What will it take to earn some peace and freedom?

Highlighted throughout by quotes from the Bible that deftly accentuate, punctuate and often starkly contrast with the way that Sarah feels (the majority of these quotes being read out loud by Sarah herself from the Bible that she carries), this book is an interesting historical study of the human periphery of the American Revolution, a look into how those people lived who were not closely linked to to the war for American independence.

[Jin · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG perhaps the worst book I've ever read. I was forced to read this book in my 9th grade Socials class and I was bored to tears. The whole thing is very anticlimactic. For all those people saying how exciting or violent or relate able the characters are I do not understand how you came to this conclusion.
Sarah is narrow minded, and extremely boring. You cannot relate to her or her actions at all. There is no romance because all she ends up doing is living in a cave.
The ending was horrible, she goes to live in a cave. That is it, none of the side story plots were ever revealed and my gosh this was just a god awful book. So boring, not enlightening. Will never read again.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Sarah Bishop is a 15-year-old girl living during the tensions of the Revolutionary War. Her father is a Tory, believing they should remain loyal to England and the king. Her brother has turned Patriot and even enlists in the war. Sarah's father is killed by the Patriot forces in her town who disdain the loyalists, and so she fears them. And when Sarah heads off in search of her brother she learns to fear the British as well, well before she learns that her brother is dead. But she is accused of a crime and becomes a criminal to the British, so she flees and decides to live a life on her own in the wilderness. She discovers her own strength and how to survive and that she does need people in order to make it. But the local town accuses her of witchcraft when they fall on hard times and she has to deal with that as well.

So I've finished the book, and I did find parts of it fairly interesting. The beginning is the best part as Sarah interacts with history and goes through her struggle. For the most part, we don't get her emotional reactions. I mean, her father dies and there's nothing. We get a bit more when she learns her brother is dead, but then there's a lot of numbness and loss of faith. After that, this becomes something of a survival story as she goes through the motions of surviving a winter out in the wilderness and makes friends with some animals and interacts with passersby. The lesson she starts to learn is that she doesn't really want to be "alone" all the time and that she can defend herself from danger....but she does kinda still need people.

But I couldn't quite understand what we were supposed to learn from the whole "witchcraft" thing. I mean, Isaac Morton invites her in to town where she learns she's being accused of witchcraft and he's the only one who defends her. She doesn't see this as a reason to turn her back on society (which I would have) or even as a betrayal since Isaac knew what was going on and didn't warn her. Sarah was pretty blindsided by it. But she more or less gets the lesson about needing to forgive those who wrong her (which is why she doesn't kill the snake that bit her), but then we end on her looking down kindly on the village that nearly condemned her as a witch. I don't think there was enough processing of that. Sarah needed time before she was able to do that I think and it just felt all kinds of wrong. Then there's no real ending because she goes back to her cave and does what? Does she live up there alone forever? Does she eventually integrate back into town life? Or does she end up beaten and run out of town the next time they have a drought?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars? This was an interesting story, I would like to increase the stars after I do some research into how true the details are, because apparently Sarah Bishop was a real person.

I appreciated the unusual portrayal of parts of the Revolutionary War told from a Tory's POV and the horrific practice the rebels had of tarring and feathering loyalists and destroying their property. They weren't all upstanding citizens just because they won the war in the end.

I felt like the plot wandered overall and I wasn't exactly sure what the point was of telling it. Sarah Bishop starts as a Tory's daughter with a rebel brother, winds up hunted and fleeing from the British, nearly gets raped, survives on her own in a cave for a year, then gets persecuted by the local quakers as a witch (Like the rebuttal to Speare's Witch of Blackbird Pond?) and throughout it all, carries a musket to protect herself (which was my favorite part of the whole thing).

Actually, writing it out like that makes it sound a lot more action packed than O'Dell made it seem.

Again, I have to look into the details, but overall I was just kind of confused about why O'Dell chose to tell her story and then end it where he did. I mean, maybe the historical facts ran out, but it's also fiction, so make something up, dude.

[Kirsten O · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in elementary school and ten years later I remembered it. I’ve been thinking about it off and on for the last decade. I remember liking it when I read it and it’s obviously left a lasting impact. There are some details, like the loading of the musket, that are ingrained in me to this day. Good read for a kid but not for the above 6th grade avid reader.

[April Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

What ages would I recommend it too? – Fifteen and up.

Length? – Most of a day’s read.

Characters? – Memorable, several characters.

Setting? – New England during the Revolutionary War.

Written approximately? – 1980.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Nightmares. Almost rape of the main character and unnecessary violence that doesn't lend to the plot.

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? A few notes about the war, time frame and witch hunts. Finish the story.

Short storyline: Sarah's father is murdered because he supports the King of England. Her brother is murdered on a prison ship because he doesn't. She escapes from the men holding the prison ship and flees for her life.

Notes for the reader: The novel just ends and doesn't tie up loose ends.

Her character is unbelievable and becomes more so as the story progresses. While she might have taken the trap off her the man's leg, she wouldn't have taken him to her cave, since he had previously tried to rape her. Nor would she have not spoken up during the "trial" held against her for witchcraft.

While this story is supposed to be based on a areal story, it makes you wonder what the real story really was.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was definitely not a book that I would read again or recommend to others. Following a girl who is living during the Revolutionary War, the reader gets to follow her life as she struggles to stay away from the British. When Sarah's house is burned down with her father inside of it and her brother dies from being held in jail, she is struck with the knowledge that she is now an orphan. Not wanting to deal with her loss and the war going on around her, Sarah flees and comes upon a cave in Long Pond. Sarah settles into the cave as it is her new home and often has visitors. I, personally, thought this book was boring and I really didn't like it. Although the characters were well developed, the plot just didn't catch my interest. I didn't like this book and wouldn't ever read it again.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the story line, but I felt like the author only told you what Sarah was doing and saying but not what she was thinking and feeling. I didn't connect with her until much later in the book, and even then she felt distant. Other than that, which involves the writer and not the story so much, I really liked the book. I like the way she changed, from an eye for an eye to forgive others their trespasses. I think deep down she was always like that, but she was hurt and angry and didn't want to feel like she 'had' to forgive, she just needed time.
I'm glad Issac stood up for her and I'm glad she let him. But I'm a sucker for a sweet innocent love interest.
Because I lack the mental in's and out's of Sarah and even her father I don't feel like I can really comment on much more than this.

[Christina (Boupie) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been re-reading all of the books I loved from my childhood and Sarah Bishop was, and is still, one of my favorites. It is the story of a young girl becoming a woman while learning to survive in a man's world and revolution. It is a quick read and the characters are delightful. It was the first book I remember reading and being so upset that you never get to see the characters, especially Sarah, again.

Entertaining, great for young girls (4th or 5th grade maybe) especially. I can not wait to share this with my children.

[Christine VanHalder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful,action-packed novel. For young adults. My copy was copyrighted 1980. A discarded ex-library school book found in a Little Free Library in North Portland, Oregon. Christian novel. Scriptures are quoted and listed within the novel. Very hard to put down. A good beach or weekend read. Based on a girl's point of view, written by a male author. Scott O'Dell is a winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

[Robin Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've loved O'dell since I read Island of the Blue Dolphins forever ago. He doesn't dissapoint here as he tells the true story of the real Sarah Bishop during the Revolutionary War. Very well written. I did wish that he had an afterward to tell us about what happened to Sarah Bishop after this book ends.

[Candi Stephenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember liking "Island of the Blue Dolphins" so I picked this one up from a "free" pile at the library. I like how it was written and the independence/tenacity of the main character, but the book just stops and you're left wondering where the ending was...no real closure, just a lot of hinting.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little mini-adventure story following a Revolutionary War girl fleeing an unfair criminal accusation and setting up a mostly-solitary and self sufficient life in a cave, surrounded by wilderness. I especially liked her wild companions, the white bat and the 3-pawed muskrat she saved from a trap.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think this was my favorite scott o'dell book. i immediately favored it because of our shared name, but she kicked ass! the book was so violent, but sarah learns how to take care of herself, gets a gun and runs away to some caves. this takes place around the revolutionary war.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written historical novel set during the Revolutionary War. A female protagonist as strong as Johnny Tremain!

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasn't the biggest fan of the ending.

[Maryc · Rating 1 out of 5]

meh

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost forgot to give myself credit for this one! Phew.

I love Scott O'Dell books, based on the 2.5 I've read. Not a huge sample, but his writing is consistent in all 3. No wasted words (which isn't always a good thing, but in children's historical fiction it absolutely is), quick plots, history, etc. His one flaw, which many others point out, and which I don't necessarily think is a flaw based on what he's trying to do (but if he was trying to get this book included in the Nobel prize sweepstakes I've have to ding him for it), is that his main characters are basically vehicles for the plot and not really people. The story in both books (Sing Down the Moon and Sarah Bishop) is told from the perspective of the main character in the first person. And you might be thinking, "well isn't that impressive that man writes all these books from a female perspective", but it's not that impressive because you could honestly have replaced both lead characters with a boy or an eagle or a lamp post and it would achieved the same effect. The lamp post would have only restricted the character's movement, but otherwise Sarah Bishop had about as much emotion and charisma as the metal object.

Her Dad gets tarred and feathered IN FRONT OF HER and she WATCHES HIM DIE and she's like "I need to go get my brother" (for dinner or to tell him YOUR DAD IS DEAD!?). Same for Sing Down the Moon. She has a couple of breakout moments, particularly when she's blaspheming the Bible (which was quite provocative for a children's novel), but otherwise she's pretty milquetoast (and I don't mean "timid and feeble" like the actual word, because she did live a freaking cave by herself with a bat and muskrat for over a year and part of that was with her almost rapist who she saved from dying....I mean actual Toast soaked in Milk).

The main reason I'd recommend including this book in a child's historical fiction reading list is because it doesn't paint a very nice picture of the early Americans. I picked it up expecting this to be a straightforward retelling of the revolutionary war. Instead her dad is loyal to the king and the revolutionaries are tyrannical. I really started to question if all of my understanding of early American history was a lie. And it did a really good job of depicting how much that war would have sucked. People starving, people dying of starvation, people dying of diseases related to being starved. People dying on ships because they caught diseases from people that were starving. (This is also why I'd recommend maybe a kid should be like 10 before he reads this...and also because it's insinuated at one point that she was going to be raped but she broke loose.).

About halfway through it stops really even talking about the war, which was also interesting and probably quite accurate. Most people probably discussed it, but since most of the battles took place in specific locales, the day to day existence of ordinary towns probably didn't change much. Even if the British took your town over, it's not like they shut down your business (assuming you weren't selling goods to Washington or instigating riots).

And there's some random interesting tidbits about quakers at the end, which pretty well followed my understanding of quakers. They kind of suck, but they're also kind of dope, but they're also super hypocritical slave-owning rich people, but they're also epic abolitionist prophets.

[SJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

i read this book as a kid, but the only things i remembered from it were the white bat, her living in the cave, and being taught how to make a boat from a burned-out log. re-reading it as an adult a few decades later and then going to look up the real Sarah Bishop, i don't actually think it's very good; for one thing there's a lot of misogyny and white supremacism that i definitely didn't notice as a kid, (at one point a native american comes to the cave she's squatting in and says it's his ancestral land and she is like well i'm not leaving and threatens to shoot him?! also there is an attempted rape, also she sells her hair and then that's one of the reasons she is suspected of being a WITCH, because she doesn't look WOMANLY enough with short hair good grief--and this made me dislike the cover even more, because in the book she's like "my hair is cut short and my dress is basically falling apart rags" but on the cover she is in front of the cave with a nice dress and shawl and long feminine hair like the publishing industry has the same attitude as mr. morton and can't conceive of people not wanting to fit socially prescribed norms) and for another this contemporary source on Sarah Bishop says she was basically vegetarian, but in the book she's constantly eating meat. https://www.sarahbishop.org/about-sar...

I actually think the historical Sarah Bishop, living alone in the woods for 30 years, sounds very interesting and I think it's a shame that Scott O'Dell's fictional version of her is so unimaginative and shallow. maybe that's why i barely remembered most of it.

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a decent middle grade book. I would not consider it a children’s book due to a near rape scene that occurs to the teenaged protagonist. Her character development is not anything particularly grand, but it is there and noticeable and worth discussing. I appreciated a view of the Revolutionary War that I don’t often think about: how it affected regular citizens who just wanted to be left alone to live their lives. As a patriotic American, I often view the war, on a whole, as heroic, and it was a little uncomfortable to be reminded of less-than-heroic events that happened because of it. This provides food for thought. The book was a little boring at times, though I felt the pacing was consistent. Overall, I would recommend this book to pre-teens interested in American history and/or self-reliant female protagonists.

[Nola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah Bishop is yet another of author Scott O'Dell's heroines who defies the odds to survive in a world that seems determined to thwart her at every turn. My search to find out more about the real Sarah Bishop did not turn up much other than the fact that she was a real person and she did find refuge in a cave. Of course Scott O'Dell added much of his own imagination to her life to make an intriguing story. Sarah was just 15 years old and all alone during the Revolutionary War where she found she could trust no one. She proved incredibly resourceful and brave; so much so that some of the men in the nearby village were convinced she must be a witch. After finishing this book, I found myself wanting to know what happened next to Sarah.

[Kristine L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brisk and engaging, this intriguing historical novel brims with robust characters, vibrant settings (like Long Pond), and a rich plot.

Set during the War for Independence, the story revolves around heroine Sarah Bishop. She's barely sixteen. After her father is tarred and feathered as a Tory sympathizer and dies, Sarah goes in search of her brother, who's joined the Patriot army. He dies aboard a ghastly British prison ship.

Alone, Sarah proves herself industrious, courageous, clever, and sturdy. And not to be trifled with.

Superbly written. I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting.

[Gwen Testa · Rating 2 out of 5]

“‘It is not a revolution...It is a civil war, a war among people who once were friends. Let us strive to be understanding of those who have different thoughts from ours. For we share a common speech and do worship the same all-merciful God.’” Pg. 31
“Father was an admirer of William Tyndall. He never got tired of talking about him. Every night he told me something new about Tyndall.” Pg. 36
Attempted assault pg. 102
“‘We cannot live without God’s love. And our own love, which we must share with Him and with each other.’” Pg. 229

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just kinda boring? The way the protagonist reacts to events is really understated and that just didn't work for me. There was so little emotional impact for all the things that happened and so I just didn't care that much either. I've enjoyed other books by this author so I'm not sure if this book is a different style or if my tastes have just changed.

Nitpicky note; protagonist describes making 3 bushels of acorns into flour in 2 days...I have made acorn flour and there is no way that is physically possible.