The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

Written by Jacqueline Kelly

Narrated by Natalie Ross

Callie Vee, Travis, Granddaddy, and the whole Tate clan are back in this charming follow-up to Newbery Honor-winner The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.

Travis keeps bringing home strays. And Callie has her hands full keeping the wild animals-her brother included-away from her mother's critical eye. Whether it's wrangling a rogue armadillo or stray dog, a guileless younger brother or standoffish cousin, the trials and tribulations of Callie Vee will have listeners laughing and crying and cheering for this most endearing heroine.

This title has Common Core connections.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jul 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781427261380

Jacqueline Kelly

Jacqueline Kelly won the Newbery Honor for her first book, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. 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.

Reviews for The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

[elenaj-147457 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

. . . On the one hand, this is an engaging and fun piece of historical fiction, with quirky, likable characters.

On the other hand, I kept being distracted by the extent to which Callie is incredibly privileged in her context. The story foregrounds her lack of gender privilege (which is a real thing, and a legitimate problem), but glosses over her race and class privilege. Compare her choices and opportunities to the opportunities a Native American girl, a Hispanic girl, a Black girl, or a poor white girl would have had in Texan at the time the story was written, and the difference is stark. From the trajectory of the story, it's clear that her family's relative wealth will allow her to achieve her dreams despite the sexism she faces. Good for her, but . . .

[amandabock-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I liked this one better than the first! It has a plot, first of all! Callie Vee is such an entertaining character and it's fun to watch her barrel through others' limited expectations of young ladies at the time. The snippets of scientific information are sure to pique the curiosity of like-minded readers; it would be fun to have a suitable list of nonfiction to give them. Now that Callie has Aggie's defiant example, I hope there will be more stories about her quest for knowledge and equality.

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A nice follow-up t the Newberry Honor book, "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate."Again, the book is not so much a single plot, but a series of episodes in Calpurnia's life with her large family. She continues her scientific education with her grandfather, assists her younger brother, Travis, with his various attempts at making pets out of wild animals, copes with having an irritating older cousin move in and take over her room, copes with the injustice of differing rights and opportunities for girls v/s boys in 1900, and develops an interest in veterinary medicine among other things.

[rosa.mill · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It took me a while to be okay with the narration style but this story was just as enjoyable as the last story about the Tates'. I love how smart Callie is and I find a lot of the historical and scientific details really interesting. A good listen.

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This charming tale is sure to delight readers both young and old. Callie and her brother Travis have more than a mere fondness for animals, especially strays, and go to great lengths to hide their charges from the adults who would disapprove. When Callie’s less than-than-kind cousin comes to spend some time with the family, Callie is at once fascinated repelled by the cousin’s demeanor and actions. But Callie is more than fascinated by her cousin’s typewriter, and thus begins a new chapter in Callie’s life. The great appeal of this series lies not only in the plucky character of Callie, but also in the relationships she has with Travis and with her grandfather as well as the struggles she has with the remaining family members. And while all is not sunshine and roses in her life, you know that no matter what happens, you know that Callie will succeed by sheer wits and courage.

[lindamamak · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great sequel to the life of Calpurina Tate. As Callie navigates her 13th year she relalizes she wants to b a vet one day.

[jugglingpaynes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you loved "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" you might love Jacqueline Kelly's second book, "The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate," even more. Picking up where the first book left off, it is spring of 1900 and Calpurnia is still learning natural science alongside her Granddaddy. This book has more interactions with her brothers, especially her one-year-younger brother Travis, who loves animals a little bit too much.This book deals with a lot of tough issues, most notably the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the inequality of women at the turn of the 20th century. I think these are dealt with honestly and sensitively, with consideration for the targeted age range of the reader. Parents with sensitive children should be warned that there are many animal deaths in the course of the story. My son would never have been able to read this when he was younger. Calpurnia's grandfather tends to be further in the background in this one, as other characters are highlighted. He is still there when she needs him, but he is more of a casual observer, offering support and advice as Calpurnia's world expands and as she finds her place in it.Overall this is a wonderful book. I think it is even better than the first. I highly recommend it.

[krau0098 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is the sequel to the book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate was a book I absolutely adored so I was incredibly excited to hear that a sequel was coming out. However, I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first one...it just didn’t have much of a point to it.Travis, Calpurnia’s younger brother, keeps bringing home strays. Whether it’s stray rabbits, stray armadillos, or stray half coyote pups Callie is having a heck of a time hiding all the animals from her mother. When a horrible hurricane takes out Galveston Texas things change for Callie’s family. They end up taking in one of Callie’s older female cousins and a new veterinarian comes into town introducing Callie to a new career that she’s very interested in. I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the first one because it didn't have anything to really drive the plot forward. It was still an engaging read; very nostalgic and provides an interesting look into the life of a young girl trying to make her way in science in a time when women didn’t really do that.I love reading about Callie and her family. However for the first half of the book things are very wandering and pretty much just detail day to day life of this family. There is absolutely nothing to drive the plot forward (there really isn’t a plot). Things get more interesting when the hurricane goes through Galveston; there is some intersting history in this part and it shakes things up for Callie’s family quite a bit.The veterinarian doesn’t even come into the story until the second half of the book and Callie doesn’t get involved working with him until the last quarter or so. There is a rather compelling scene where Callie finally puts her foot down and lets it be known that she has plans for a career in science, but her family still brushes her off and doesn’t take her seriously.Although the book is well written and fairly engaging by the end of it I couldn’t really tell you what the point to the whole thing was. The first book Callie and her Grandpa here discovering a new species and trying to get it recognized. In this book Callie spends time learning about animals but the story is very defocused.Overall I enjoyed the book but struggled a bit with the lack of any plot. I still enjoy reading about Callie and her family, however I wish the author had maybe focused on Callie’s want to become a scientist or focused on something that gave the book more cohesion. I still recommending reading this if you enjoyed The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and I still think everyone should read The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate...however this second book wasn’t as impressive.