Book Review, Genre 5: THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE
Author: Jacqueline Kelly
Title: The Evolution
of Calpurnia Tate
Illustrator: April Ward
Publisher: Henry Hold and Company
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8841-0
Plot summary: In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old
Callie Vee Tate resists the instructions of her mother to be a lady; learns
about love the hard way from the older three of her six brothers; and studies
the natural world with her grandfather -- which leads to an important discovery
that changes her life.
Critical analysis: Like the evolution of a polliwog into a
frog or a caterpillar into a butterfly, readers watch the character of 11-year-old
Calpurnia Tate evolve in the historical fiction book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. We watch
Calpurnia grow in knowledge of the world around her and in frustration at the
restraints placed on women from the summer of 1899 to New Year’s Day 1900.
Calpurnia wants more out of life than what is expected of young women at the
turn of the century: keeping house, cooking, and needlepoint. “I pulled my
sampler from my sewing bag and looked at it. It had started out life as a perfect
square but had evolved into a skewed rhomboid, with all the letters learning
sharply to the right. How were you supposed to make the stitches the same size?
How were you supposed to keep the tension even? And, most of all, who cared
about this stuff?/Well, I could answer the last one. My mother cared, and the
rest of the world apparently did too, for no good reason that I could figure
out” (p. 216-217). Author Kelly keeps up a running theme throughout the book
that does an adequate job of teaching readers how the attitudes towards women’s
lifestyles today have changed since 1899.
The book’s setting of rural Fentress, Texas, is vividly
described: the heat, the landscape, modes of travel, clothing, types of chores,
the insects, the animals. For example: “The heat was a misery for all of us in
Fentress, but it was the women who suffered the most in their corsets and
petticoats” (p. 1-2). And: “On the long drive back to Fentress, my grandfather
and I had energy to spare. We burned up some of it singing sea chanteys and
pirate songs with naughty words, being careful to switch to hymns when other
riders came into view. We made it home at dinnertime, dusty and worn out but
still elated by our day” (p. 178).
The plot of the story centers on Calpurnia’s desire to do
something more with her life than become a wife and mother. She is a very
curious and observant child that wants to learn about the world around her. It
was a book that brought her to the attention of her preoccupied grandfather: “He
extracted a book covered in rich green morocco leather handsomely tipped with
gold. He polished it with his sleeve, although I could see no dust on it.
Ceremoniously, he bowed and offered it to me. I looked at it. The Origin of Species. Here, in my own
house. I received it in both my hands. He smiled. Thus began my relationship
with Granddaddy” (p. 21).
The style of writing did not strike me as overly historical.
I felt the yes sirs and ma’ams were correct for the time. I felt that Calpurnia’s
respect for her elders and her manners were correct for the time. But the
dialogue, in my opinion, did not capture the speech patterns of Texas in 1899.
Perhaps this is because the author is originally from New Zealand and raised in
Canada. While Kelly currently lives in Texas, she is somewhat new to Texas and
southern vernacular which might explain her writing style.
I felt like the book ended at a
good spot: Calpurnia made a list of things she would like to see and do before
she dies. One item on her list was to see snow – something that even today is
not a common sight in Texas. At the very end of the book it does snow and
Calpurnia revels in its pureness before anyone else is up and about for the
day. While the book ended on a happy note, I felt like there was more to
Calpurnia’s story. I was pleased to find out there is another book about
Calpurnia (The Curious World of Calpurnia
Tate ISBN: 9780805097443) and I can’t wait to read it.
Review excerpt:
- 2010 John Newbery Medal Honor Book
- 2010 Winner of the Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children’s Literature
- 2010 winner of the IRA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award
- Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2009 (Vol. 77, No. 7): The year is 1899, the place Texas and the problem is 11-year-old Calpurnia Virginia Tate, who is supposed to want to cook, sew and attract future beaux, not play in the dirt, examine insects and, perhaps most suspect of all, read Darwin's controversial The Origin of Species, the source of the novel's chapter introductions. A natural-born scientist, she alone among her six brothers has discovered the rare specimen under her own roof a funny-smelling, rather antisocial grandfather who preoccupies himself with classifying flora and fauna...when he's not fermenting pecans for whiskey. Their budding friendship is thoughtfully and engagingly portrayed, as is the unfolding of the natural world's wonders under Calpurnia's ever-inquisitive gaze. Calpurnia is not a boilerplate folksy Southern heroine who spouts wise-beyond-her-years maxims that seem destined for needlepoint her character is authentically childlike and complex, her struggles believable. Readers will finish this witty, deftly crafted debut novel rooting for "Callie Vee" and wishing they knew what kind of adult she would become.
- The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, July/August 2009 (Vol. 62, No. 11) by Elizabeth Bush: Narrator Calpurnia s voice is fresh and convincing, and Granddaddy is that favorite relative most readers would love to claim as their own. Historical fiction fans are in for a treat.
- Children’s Literature by Phyllis Kennemer, Ph.D: This book presents an engaging piece of historical-fiction depicting the roles and expectations for women at the turn of the twentieth century.
Connections:
- Readers can continue to follow Calpurnia’s story in:
The Curious World of Calpurnia
Tate ISBN: 9780805097443
Calpurnia Tate, Girl
Vet series by Kelly and coauthor Teagan White
- Jacqueline Kelly also wrote Return to the Willows ISBN: 9780805094138, a sequel to The Wind in the Willows.
- Readers can learn more about author Jacqueline Kelly by visiting her web site at www.jacquelinekelly.com
Bibliography
Cover, Mount
Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. September 27, 2016.
Kelly,
Jacqueline. The Evolution of Calpurnia
Tate. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009. 9780805088410
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