Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she
wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so
much bigger than the green ones.With a little help from her
notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she
figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against
the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get any larger.
As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a
close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of
living with six brothers, and comes up against just what it means
to be a girl at the turn of the century.
Debut author Jacqueline Kelly deftly brings Callie and her
family to life, capturing a year of growing up with unique
sensitivity and a wry wit. "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" is a
2010 Newbery Honor Book and the winner of the 2010 Bank Street -
Josette Frank Award.
關於作者:
Jacqueline Kelly won the Newbery Honor for The
Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, her first book. She was born in
New Zealand and raised in Canada, in the dense rainforests of
Vancouver Island. Her family then moved to El Paso, Texas, and
Kelly attended college in El Paso, then went on to medical school
in Galveston. After practicing medicine for many years, she went to
law school at the University of Texas, and after several years of
law practice, realized she wanted to write fiction. Her first story
was published in the Mississippi Review in 2001. She now
makes her home with her husband and various cats and dogs in Austin
and Fentress, Texas.
內容試閱:
Chapter 1The Origin of
SpeciesWhen a young naturalist commences the study of a group
of organisms quite unknown to him, he is at first much perplexed to
determine what differences to consider . . . for he knows nothing
of the amount and kind of variation to which the group is subject.
. . .By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the
Texas heat. We arose in the dark, hours before sunrise, when there
was barely a smudge of indigo along the eastern sky and the rest of
the horizon was still pure pitch. We lit our kerosene lamps and
carried them before us in the dark like our