DBRLTeen

Girls growing up in Texas in 1899 weren’t expected to have careers. They were expected to get married. But Calpurnia Tate loves nature, and longs to be a scientist. Her grandfather, an amateur scientist himself, is the only one in her family who supports her.

from page 220 – “I had never thought my future would be like theirs. But now I knew this was untrue, and that I was exactly like other girls. I was expected to hand over my life to a house, a husband, children. It was intended that I give up my nature studies, my Notebook, my beloved river. There was a wicked point to all the sewing and cooking that they were trying to impress upon me, the tedious lessons I had been spurning and ducking. I went hot and cold all over. My life did not lie with the Plant after all. My life was forfeit. Why hadn’t I seen it? I was trapped. A coyote with her paw in the trap.”

As Mr. Darwin wrote, “It is most difficult to remember that the increase of every living being is constantly being checked by unperceived injurious agencies…”  But you will have to read the book for yourself to find out if Calpurnia still feels trapped at the end.

So DBRLTeen recommends The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly.  Although fiction, it illustrates the struggles so many young women went through in the past to achieve their goals, blazing the trails that young women today can follow so much more easily.

Read an inteview with author Jacqueline Kelly by clicking here.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.