The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
First edition cover, illustrated by Beth White and designed by April Ward
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| Author | Jacqueline Kelly |
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| Cover artist | Beth White, April Ward |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult, Historical fiction |
| Publisher | Henry Holt and Company |
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Publication date
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May 12, 2009 (1st edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 340 (Hardcover) (1st edition) |
| ISBN | (1st edition) |
| OCLC | 262143062 (1st edition) |
| LC Class | PZ7.K296184 Evo 2009 |
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate is a 2009 award winning historical young adult novel by Jacqueline Kelly. It is the story of a young girl growing up in Texas and was the recipient of a 2010 Newbery Honor Award.
In the summer of 1899, Calpurnia Virginia Tate is about to turn twelve and worries about the adult responsibilities that loom on the horizon. She would much rather swim in the river near her family's pecan plantation just outside the tiny town of Fentress, Texas than learn to cook, knit, and play the piano. One day, noticing two different types of grasshoppers in the lawn around the house, Callie decides to find a copy of Charles Darwin's infamous book The Origin of Species. After a disastrous encounter with a lady librarian, Callie is forced to search for the illicit book elsewhere. Little does she know that there is a copy in her very own house in the personal library of her Granddaddy. An imposing and distant figure, Callie must work up her courage to ask him about her grasshopper conundrum and relay her own theory about why the grasshoppers around the house are two different sizes. This begins an easy sort of friendship between granddaughter and grandfather. Soon Callie is spending most of her time with Granddaddy, catching specimens of wildlife for his collection and learning about natural sciences at his side.
When she is not tramping and trapping with Granddaddy, Callie finds herself sadly incapable at the skills her mother so desperately tries to teach her. She cannot cook anything other than soft-boiled eggs and cheese sandwiches. Her needlepoint is "straggly and pitiful." Her piano-playing, while adequate, is unexceptional. All of this is painfully obvious to poor Callie when she is compared to her best friend Lula. Lula is a perfect lady, excelling at all of the pursuits at which Callie fails so miserably. In fact, her proper ladylike demeanor has three of Callie's six brothers falling in love with her during the course of the summer.
Callie fears that her free-roaming days may be at an end, though, when she receives a frightening Christmas gift: a book from her mother entitled "The Science of Housewifery."
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