It’s not one continuous story––more episodic and memory based, Little Women-style. Many more incidents like this are peppered through Kelly’s middle grade novel, among the many incidents that frame and define the brief, pivotal period of Calpurnia’s childhood that The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate covers. In a moment that will set the tone for the rest of the novel, Jacqueline Kelly has used the opening chapter to remind us where we are. The doors of opportunity are shrieking closed. The librarian, however, objects profoundly. In between tedious needlework lessons and the looming threat of housewifery, Calpurnia, in spite of the dictates of turn-of-the-century Texas, has developed a sapling of scientific inquiry, and she hopes against hope that she can get her hands on Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species. On a rare and precious trip to the library, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate‘s determined and curious 10-year-old heroine is in search of a tightly-guarded treasure. I made this illustration, credits for the things I used are here. The 10-year old Calpurnia Tate discovers her love of biology and taxonomy in 1899, in Jacqueline Kelly’s historical middle-grade novel.
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