"The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" Jacqueline Kelly

“I would read all day long and eat peaches. And if any young knights in armor dared to come calling on their white chargers and plead with me to let down my hair, I would pelt them with peach pits until they went home.” 

― Jacqueline Kelly, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

One of the hazards of prolific reading is to become jaded by formulaic writing.  Regardless of the lovely characters in Kelly's "Calpurnia", I couldn't help thinking that it was just a rewriting of other stories, of note "Catherine, Called Birdy."  In both books, a young girl is given a blank book by a beloved other brother to keep as a journal.  In the case of Birdy, the story is what she has written, but Calpurnia uses her book to record her observations of the nature around her.

Callie Vee, as she is called, soon finds that her grandfather studies natural history and becomes his partner in scientific studies and the distillation of whiskey.  Like Birdy, Callie Vee is being groomed in the domestic arts to prepare for a life as wife and mother, and like Birdy, Callie is having none of it.  Birdy is 13 and living in medieval times, so she is expected to be married soon.  She does all she can to sabotage any prospective suitors, but Callie has many years before she will 'come out' and instead sabotages the relationships of her oldest brother, Harry, in fear that marriage will take him away from her.

Both girls are more interested in male-dominated occupations, which include most occupations at the time.  Birdy's choices seem to be wife or nun, with no other opportunities, while Callie could at least be a teacher or switchboard operator.  She talks of going to the University, but her parents plan on her getting married.

The book is fun to read and there is clearly an agenda to sell scientific endeavors to young girls, an admirable intent.  The setting in turn-of-the-century Texas also makes for an interesting historical backdrop.  Like "Birdy", I am sure I would have loved this book as a young girl even if I am too jaded now to be that excited about the story line.

I can see now that there is a sequel to this book coming out soon.  I suspect that is why it was on sale at audible.com, which is an Amazon company.  The intent is to get you hooked on the story so that you'll buy the new book.  I won't be doing that, though.

I wish that it were easier to tell when a book is for juveniles or young adults.  I don't mind reading one every once in a while, but in my endeavor to reduce the amount of money I spend on books, especially recorded books, I am eager to buy books on sale, but it seems that there is much YAL on sale.  And, so, I end up reading more of those than I want.

I also wish there were stories about children that are written for adults.  Is that possible?  "Room" by Emma Donoghue was about a little boy and was for adults.  Are there more?