EVOLUTION

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

This book has a delicious content, is light hearted, intelligent and detailed. It’s a one of a kind book; it tells the story about a little girl (the only one of 6 brothers), who is constantly struggling against her own mother and her desire of create a feminist daughter worried about knitting, cooking and playing piano, activities Calpurnia doesn’t enjoy even a little bit since she finds them as a boring waste of time (specially cooking).
Calpurnia is a girl absorbed by her desire of searching, analyze and find the answers to all the wonderfulness of the world that surrounds her. Her wish is to be a scientist and go to College one day. As she passes time with her grandfather discovers how nature works and thanks to it grows a special bond between them.
I loved how the story is described; Calpurnia knows that she is only a girl with the same destiny as all the other ones she knows, “There’s no escape” as she said in the book. The time she was born wasn’t exactly perfect for someone with that kind of ambition but she decides to give herself a chance even if all the odds are against her.
What I liked the most about the book were “The origin of species” quotes. They were perfectly applied and during my lecture I couldn’t help but to associate everything with natural selection and surviving of the strongest.
It’s an intelligent book full of metaphors and detailed observations about the world and simple questions with complicated answers. You won’t regret reading it.