My reading streak wrapped up with two other books that would be about right for older elementary school kids. I just returned to the library The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, another YA book that has garnered well-deserved praise. I read multiple recommendations for it, mostly from homeschooling bloggers who like the book’s affirmation of nature study. Although I wasn’t as moved by it as I was by The Book Thief, it was a delightful read - humorous, clean, well-written. I found nothing objectionable and plenty to commend: the writing, the plot, the humanity of the characters, the look into an exciting period of history. It kept me from going crazy for four hours while I was imprisoned in the waiting room at the ER waiting to hear about an X-ray that showed no broken bones.
I almost wrote "nothing objectionable," but then an image of some of the puritan home schoolers we've met flashed before me. This book is called "The Evolution," and it addresses the discoveries being made by Charles Darwin at the time of the setting. The grandfather not only drinks whiskey, but he makes it and lets his preteen granddaughter try some. I suppose there are a number of people who would lump this into the Dangerous Books pile with Harry Potter.
The story follows 11-year-old Callie Tate, the only girl in a family with six boys living in rural Texas in 1899. Left to her own devices during an especially hot summer, she begins to study grasshoppers. This awakens a burgeoning interest in the natural world. Providentially – or by reason of genetics – she happens to have a grandfather who’s an amateur naturalist himself. The rest of the family avoids him, but Callie up a friendship with the eccentric old man, who has a laboratory full of specimens and a pecan distillery in a shed behind the house. Callie discovers he is a treasure trove of natural history and has corresponded with Charles Darwin. Together they study the flora and fauna of the area. Grandfather Tate teaches Callie and the reader about the wonders of nature and inspires curiosity and an appreciation for scientific rigor. Although the author spends a lot of time describing plants and insects, she includes enough anecdotes about school, Callie’s brother’s romances, a trip to the fair, and other domestic escapades, to keep the human interest high for readers who aren’t as inspired by species of vetch.
The story reminded me a little of books like Thimble Summer and Caddie Woodlawn, although it lacked the immediacy of those stories of innocent rural girlhood, since it is an imagined, instead of experienced, look at the past. I couldn’t get any of my kids interested in reading it before the library due date; since the main character is a girl, the older boys didn’t want to read it, and my 9 year old is still not enjoying reading. Chapter books are a chore, and this one is a little more dense than she is ready for
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The boys instead are reading Tony DiTerlizzi’s book The Search for Wondla that came out last summer. I have to admit to a fondness for his Spiderwick books and The Spider and The Fly, and Ted. And the epigraph to The Search for Wondla is the wonderful quote from Albert Einstein, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
But I have to admit, I couldn’t love this book. It is set in the future when Eva 9 is the last human being in existence. She is tended by a robot called MUTHR. When her Sanctuary is destroyed she has to go out in the real world, where she seeks a place called “Wondla,” which she saw in a photograph. On her quest she meets some strange, Stars Wars-esque creatures. The book also has an online tie-in, which is a turn-off for me. I don't want to hold the little key illustrations up to my computer camera to decode some clue. I don't want my kids to want to read a book because they want to play the computer game. The illustrations are captivating, but the tale lacked charm, or maybe it had too much science fiction for my taste. Forgettable.
Now I'm turning my attention to some more serious books, which I'll write about later.
