The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly
Book Description:
Calpurnia Virginia
Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in
her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones.With a little help
from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures
out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so
they are eaten before they can get any larger. As Callie explores the natural
world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather,
navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against just
what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century.
Review:
I have to be fully honest... I tried to read this book about a year and a half ago and I couldn't get past the first two chapters. Something about it just did NOT work. So when I tried picking it up again, I was a little leery. Having learned that I LOVE audio books, I decided to try it that way and it made a marked difference. I'm pretty sure that if I wasn't listening to this book, I would have put it down again...
...And, it's not that it's a bad book. Not by any means!
It has starred reviews from several publications and it even won a Newbury
Honor. It just is a little hard to start. This book not only feels like a lazy
old western movie, where tumbleweeds should be rolling by (not in a bad way,
just setting the tone), but it also has chapters that don't really seem to fit
together into a cohesive storyline in the beginning. It takes almost half the
book for things to start to be progressing toward any type of a climactic
moment.
Though I really ended up liking Calpurnia, her
grandfather and the other members of her family very much, I would have to find
just the right reader to recommend this book. It is not for an impatient reader
and certainly not for anyone who wouldn't embrace the quirks of historical
fiction. It is well done, but a very quiet read.
