Callie, much like the residents of her small town, is going through a life-changing time. Her proper behavior and beauty cause three of Callie's six brothers to fall in love with her over the course of that summer, which adds drama to the Tate household.At the turn of the 20th century, Callie Vee Tate's small Texas town gets their very first telephone.
Callie's struggle to become a proper lady is made even more painful by her best friend Lula, who is in every way a perfect young girl. Callie humors her mother, but deep down inside she hopes that her future will have more possibilities than her mother or the rest of her family anticipate. Callie's mother knows that her daughter is not naturally attracted to cooking and sewing, but believes that this is the only future for her only little girl. She demands that Callie spend less time with her grandfather out in the field getting dirty, and more time at home, working on her piano lessons. Meanwhile, Callie's mother is more interested in preparing her daughter for courtship and life as a mother. They send the specimen off to the Smithsonian to be verified, and Callie can't wait to hear back about the results of her first big scientific discovery. Granddaddy brings the sample back to his study where they examine it more closely, and Granddaddy begins to wonder if he and Callie might have found a new species of plant.
On one outing, Callie and Granddaddy discover a unique looking vetch, or ferny plant. Her older brother Harry is one of the few siblings she has who truly understands her, and he gives her a notebook to record her thoughts in. Callie, however, is rambunctious, curious, and finds housework boring and fruitless. Callie is eleven, and just moving into the age when her mother expects her to spend less time running and playing outside, and more time inside learning about housekeeping, playing the piano, and becoming a good wife. It is the end of the 20th century, and Callie Tate is living on the prosperous farm with her mother, father, and six brothers, as well as her grandfather, whom Callie calls Granddaddy. The novel begins on a pecan farm in rural central Texas, near the small town of Fentress. Over the course of six months, Callie struggles between her mother's domestic and romantic expectations for her life and her own desire to attend college and become a natural scientist. The novel follows eleven-year-old Calpurnia Tate, or Callie as she prefers to be called, as she begins to explore her interests, desires, and fascination with the natural world under the thumb of her at first intimidating, but ultimately supportive and intelligent grandfather.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate is a young adult novel by Jacqueline Kelly set in Fentress, Texas at the turn of the 20th century.
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