The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

There’s nothing I love more than a book about a gutsy girl.

Calpurnia, 11 years old in 1899, has to fight to learn natural science against her family’s expectations of becoming a good little housewife. My favorite part of this book is Callie’s relationship with her Granddaddy, a cantankerous Civil War veteran who also happens to be a passionate amateur naturalist. He encourages and sticks up for her as she learns what she yearns to know. 

For me, these two co-conspirators’ search for a new species captured the romance of science–the dream of contributing something new, the joy of the… show more.

Calpurnia Tate lives in a small dusty Texas town. Her father is a farmer but her mother sees herself as a lady, and wants her only daughter to be one too. Unfortunately, that means wearing frilly dresses and learning to cook, clean, and sew. What Calpurnia wants is to study animals and plants like her naturalist grandfather, which means getting dirty. My sympathies were all with Calpurnia. I remember what it was like to play in the creek and dig in the dirt. It was better than dressing in ruffles and lace any day!

I cannot lie, the first time I read this book I thought the first few chapters luxuriated in a wonderful voice but were slow in getting to the plot and should have had an editor go at them with a sharp pencil. But then I got pulled into the middle, and by the end, I understood why The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate totally deserved the Newbery Honor in 2010. Every detail from the start contributed to the “evolution” of Callie Vee, the eleven-year-old narrator who in 1899 Texas has to face a life of domestic servitude when all she wants… show more.