102. the EVOLUTION of CALPURNIA TATE

Jacqueline Kelly 2009

This book came highly recommended by a ten year old girl. I can see why she loves it. A heart-warming book set in 1899, Austin Texas about Calpurnia Tate, an endearing eleven year old budding scientist, at the helm of her Grandfather, a naturalist who lives at a make-shift laboratory at the back of her family's home. Amidst her mother's insistence that she learns to sew, knit, cook and tend house, she instead prefers to spend time with her Granddaddy. Together they develop the most wonderful relationship as they explore, collect samples, conduct experiments and discover their own natural world.

'By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat. '(opening line)

'My name is Calpurnia Virginia Tate, but back then everybody called me Callie Vee. That summer, I was eleven years old, the only girl out of seven children. Can you imagine a worse situation? I was splice midway between three older brothers-- Harry, Sam Houston, and Lamar-- and three younger brothers-- Travis, Sul Ross, and the baby, Jim Bowie, whom we called J.B.'(2)

'It's amazing what you can see when you just sit quietly and look.'(35)

'I took the sandwich and Great Expectations and sank into my bed with the utmost feeling of luxuriousness. Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.'(60)

"I must husband my hours and spend every one of them wisely. I regret that I didn't come to this realization until I reached fifty years of age. Calpurnia, you would do well to adopt such an attitude at an earlier age. Spend each of your allotted hours with care."(95)

"Mother's threatening to make me learn a new dish every week. It might not be so bad, except that you spend hours making it and then it's gone in fifteen minutes. Then you sweep up the kitchen and you scrub the counter and you have to start all over again without a single moment's rest. What do you have to show for it?"(157)

'And there-- right there-- was a small green clump of possible vetch. I fell to my knees, praying let this be it, this has to be it, please let this be it. I scrabbled in the hard-packed dirt with my fingernails, loosening the soil to free up the roots as much as possible, cursing myself as an idiot for not bringing a trowel and a jar of water.'(166)

'My mother had got one girl out of seven tries at it. I guess I wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind, a dainty daughter to help her bail against the rising tide of the rough-and-tumble boyish energy that always threatened to engulf the house. It hadn't occurred to me that she'd been hoping for an ally and then didn't get one.'(192)

'But then it happened. My father fell silent. And it was his silence, his long pause while he digested this information, that filled the hallway and my heart and soul with such a great whooshing pressure that I couldn't breathe. I had never classified myself with other girls. I was not of their species; I was different.'(219)

"It means that we should celebrate today's failure because it is a clear sign that our voyage of discovery is not yet over. The day the experiment succeeds is the the day the experiment ends. And I inevitably find that the sadness of ending outweighs the celebration of success."(234)

'We slowly plowed our way though the turkey, the giblet-and-smoked-oyster stuffing, the braised sweetbreads, peppery venison sausage, sweet glazed yams, crusty roasted potatoes in their jackets, buttered limas and wax beans, velvety corn pudding, tart stewed tomatoes with okra, cabbage with chunks of sugar-coated pork, puckery pickled beets, creamed spinach-and-onion compote. For dessert we had pecan pie, a lemon pie, a mincemeat pie, and a tart apple pie...'(271)

'"Pardon me," said Granddaddy, catching his mistake and bowing. "I meant of course, my only granddaughter." He calmly drank and then sat down. My brothers were in a snit, but I didn't care. My heart pumped gladness through my veins. I was all to him, wasn't I? And he was all to me.'(326)

First Edition,2009
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
338 pages
Book borrowed from the library