Maybe my expectations were too high for the book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, but I was really disappointed by it. The characterization was good, and I really felt Calpurnia the main character, through whom we view our story. However, the writing was just not up to par, and I felt like it hadn’t reached the editors desk for review yet. A couple things were repeated within a very short time, which was distracting. Such as the raccoon references. (I know, I know. I’m pretty picky.)

It also did not seem like this book had a plot, which may work for some, but not for me. A theme did not begin to appear until the last page. It reminded me of a comment I received in high school English. “You just got to something here in your conclusion, you should’ve started here and moved forward.” I felt that likes what this author needed to hear.

Therefore, unfortunately, I kept putting this book down, because it bored me. I think that is one of the marks of a good book – to keep compelling you to turn the pages. 200 pages in and still nothing was really happening, but I persevered through. As I mentioned before, I was really excited about it, and I wanted to like it. I really wasn’t expecting to have a negative opinion of this book as it received a lot of attention. The topic was interesting to me, the setting, the people, but for me, the story didn’t have any movement. I think the author has the stuff to write a good book but this wasn’t it.

The story is essentially seeing six months of Calupuria Tates’s life from her point of view. Callie Vee is a born naturalist. It doesn’t happen suddenly, but she gradually works her way into science helping her granddaddy – a man who has played little role in any of her or her six brothers lives up until that point. She is happy that she has finally found someway to be different from her brothers, science and her grandfather. She doesn’t enjoy being a girl or at least the prim and proper girl her mother is trying to make her into. She doesn’t enjoy the piano, cooking or sewing. She prefers tromping through the pecan forest noting the world around her in her notebook.

One afternoon, they accidentally come across a mutant plant. A plant that could make a difference in her life. Whether it does or not, we may never know…

Kate

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
(c) 2009, Henry Holt & Co
Publisher Reading Level: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8841-0
340 Pages