The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate~ Jacqueline Kelly Review

Enjoyment: ★★☆

Plot: ★★☆

Characters: ★★☆

Settings: ★★☆

Overall: ★★☆

The summer of 1899 is hot in Calpurnia's sleepy Texas town, and there aren't a lot of good ways to stay cool. Her mother has a new wind machine from town, but Callie might just resort to stealthily cutting off her hair, one sneaky inch at a time. She also spends a lot of time at the river with er notoriously cantankerous grandfather, and avid naturalist. It turns out that every drop of river water is teeming with life-all you have to do is look through a microscope!

As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and learns just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century.

Debut author Jacqueline Kelly deftly brings Callie and her family to life, capturing an unusual year with unique sensitivity and with.

This book is the definition of slow. It begins slow and it only gets slower. Calpurnia Tate is not an all that interesting person. She came across as clueless and extremely ignorant. She does not understand even the basics that make up our world. I realize that we as the readers were supposed to learn about what was going on at the same time as Callie but I felt that some of the things that we 'learned' together Callie should have already known. However I found that I really liked her brothers especially Travis because he is so obviously superior to her other five brothers.

I like the way the setting comes so fluidly with the writing. It is there and you remember what time it is and where you are. While the year and location is not written down on every page every little action lets you know where the story takes place.

Overall my biggest complaint had to be that it was very slow. Also I felt that the author was too obsessed with evolution. Although I guess that I deserved that because I felt that the book before this one was too centered on religion. However while there were many things about this book that I liked I can't honestly say that I liked the book. The problem is that I didn't dislike the book all that much either. It was more of a neutral book for me.