The Evolution of Jacqueline Kelly
Jennifer M. Brown, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 6/2/2009
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Listen to Jacqueline Kelly introduce and read from The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Although she has law and medical degrees and still practices medicine in Austin, Texas, Jacqueline Kelly says, “I have wanted to write my whole life, ever since I was a young child.” Her favorite book is Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. “In fact, I’m working on a sequel to it at the moment,” Kelly admits. Her first book, the novel The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Holt, 2009), offers a view of life at the turn of the 20th century—a time when Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was table conversation, girls were expected to learn cooking and sewing, and extremes in temperature could cause great hardship, especially in Fentress, Texas. Narrator Calpurnia (Callie Vee) Tate feels a strong pull to the natural world, and her observations on grasshoppers lead her to approach her reclusive, science-minded Grandfather; together they embark on remarkable adventures, shirking gender roles and other preconceived notions. Here Kelly discusses her foray into writing, and the inspiration for her resourceful 11-year-old heroine.
Which came first, the sweltering 1899 Texas setting for Calpurnia Tate or Callie Vee’s voice?
It was the heat and [my] 140-year-old house in Fentress, Texas. The house is inadequately air-conditioned; it’s a huge Victorian home that was clearly built for many children. One day I was lying there in the living room on a daybed under the window, and I had a wheezing, inefficient window [a.c.] unit going, and it was just hot. I thought, “How did people stand it 150 years ago?” Calpurnia and her whole family [including her six brothers] sprang to life just then, and the first line of the book came to me.
Tell me about the inspiration for Callie Vee’s grandfather.
I grew up without a grandfather, so I had to create one. Her grandfather is a combination of several of my friends, a little bit of my father, and a lot of the imaginary grandfather that I wish I had.
How did you come up with that crucial observation about the grasshoppers, which leads Callie Vee to Grandfather?
Once again I was lying on the famous daybed in the living room, and on the window screen there were these two very different grasshoppers. And I thought, “Why are they like that?” I had to give [my character] something to wonder about, and they started me thinking.
In the book, there’s that wonderful moment Grandfather can point to when he became interested in science: on an April 1865 evening at twilight, when a bat flew into his hand. Was there a moment when you became interested in science?
I can’t point to a specific moment. I remember [taking second prize at] the science fair contest in the 6th grade. I [also] remember getting a book about animals around the world when I was very young, and being absolutely fascinated by all that and thinking that zoology was a marvelous field. I think that’s partly why I still like to sit out on the porch the way [Callie Vee] does and wait for something to move. I can just sit there and watch things and wonder about them for hours.
That [bat] anecdote was based on something that happened to a friend of mine…he was sitting at Shultz’s beer garden in Austin and he shot his hand up to catch a friend’s attention and a baby bat flew into it. He took the bat home and hung it on his shower curtain rod and opened the window so it could fly out, and [the bat] did fly out, but the next night it came back and fell asleep on the shower curtain rod again.
From the way you portrayed the respect between Grandfather and Reverend Barker and their debate of what the “unearthing [of dinosaurs] in Colorado… meant to the Book of Genesis,” you suggest there’s room for both points of view. Do you think our society today embraces this kind of healthy debate?
I think society should encourage that kind of healthy debate. I don’t see that particularly happening at the moment. They’re not mutually exclusive, faith and science. I don’t want them to be.
Given the era in which she lives, Callie Vee’s intelligence is not valued by most of society because she’s a girl. Yet even today we live in a society where a student’s intelligence is not always respected by peers. What advice would you offer to those kids?
I think the hardest thing is to maintain your sense of self, which is so difficult in the face of middle school pressure. I think it’s very difficult because you want to fit in, but at the same time, when you try to fit in you may be giving up a part of yourself. I want to say to those kids, “Hold onto yourself, it will get better.”
Jennifer M. Brown is the children's editor for Shelf Awareness, a daily enewsletter for the publishing trade. She recently launched the Web site Twenty by Jenny, which recommends titles to help parents build their child's library one book at a time.
Listen to Jacqueline Kelly introduce and read from The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
TeachingBooks.net resources on this interview »»»
