The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Confession time. As a kid, I despised History class. Social studies took a close second to math (which I still can't stand). But something interesting happened when I discovered genealogy. With the help of my mother and aunt, I traced my family tree and history came alive for me. I'd made a connection with the past.

Although I now have a soft spot for history, I don't often choose to read historical fiction. Not sure why. But every once in a while I stumble upon a book that sparks that amazement for the past again. Jacqueline Kelly's debut novel The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (2009, Henry Holt) is just such a find.

A 2009 Newbery Honor book, Calpurnia's story takes place in a small central Texas town in 1899. Callie is 11, sandwiched between six brothers in a well-to-do family. As the only daughter, it is expected that she will "come out" into society and make her family proud with her sewing, knitting, and cookery.

Callie wants nothing less.

After discovering she has a mutual love for nature and science with her grandfather, a former Civil War captain and naturalist, Callie receives an expanded education including Darwinian ideas not commonly taught in school. But this is a time when women couldn't even cast an official vote. Callie is disheartened by the expectation that she is to grow up into a wife and mother even if what she really wants to be is a scientist. And nobody seems to appreciate the significance of what Callie is learning from her grandfather, not even when they discover what might be an entirely new species of plant.

Written with rich, gorgeous detail and a warm, approachable tone, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate is a time machine intertwining science with history, and serves as a reminder about how lucky we are to live in the 21st century. It paints a picture of a gentle time when manners and culture were considered more proper than passion as the dawn of a new century ushered in great changes like automobiles, telephones and self-sufficient young ladies who were not just allowed but encouraged to follow their dreams.

For readers 3rd grade and up. Can't wait to see what Kelly tackles next. 5 bookmarks.

Classic Review -- From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

So I actually finished writing this review last week -- the first version of it at least. But when I hit publish, lovely Blogger decided to kick me off and subsequently lose my post.

WHHHAAAATTTT?????? (Needless to say, I wasn't happy.)

So it's taken me a few days to re-approach CKR and try to re-create what I'd already written. (I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.)

But anyway, here goes:

If I had made a top 10 list of all-time favorite books as an elementary school kid, E.L. Konigsburg's From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler would rank in the All-Time Top 5, along with Harriet the Spy and Little Women.

Written in 1967, Frankweiler won the 1968 Newbery and made its author E.L. Konigsburg the only author to have a winning book AND an Newbery Honor book (Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth) in the same year -- a title no one has stolen from her as of this writing.

I've been wanting to read this with my kids for some time, but whether it was because they knew it was an "old" book or whether the cover/concept/title just didn't grab them, I'm not sure. Sometimes I wonder if that beautiful gold Newbery sticker acts more like a stop sign for younger readers (alarm! alarm! important book alert! morals to be discussed! heavy emotions involved! Bail Bail Bail!)

But I finally talked my 2nd grader into giving it a try (as in: let's read one chapter and if you don't like it we don't have to continue.) That's all it took.

Claudia, an 11 year old from Greenwich, Connecticut, decides she's going to run away from home (due to being taken for granted by her parents and that she's sick of being the responsible eldest sister) but because Claudia doesn't like the idea of running AWAY from anything, she decides it's important to run TO something: specifically New York City. She decides to take her younger brother Jamie as a partner, because he knows how to save his money, and that they will hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Like I did years ago, both my kids thought it was way cool to spend the night in a museum locked in with all the antiquities and having free reign to step behind the velvet ropes. While everything doesn't come to life after hours in this museum, there is plenty of adventure for Claudia and Jamie as they have to figure out how not to get caught by the guards and then as they discover the mystery of the angel statue -- could it really be a Michelangelo? And could they have figured out a way to prove it to the museum curators?

In trying to figure out how to pass on their discovery (1967 was long before cell phones, email and the Internet) without giving themselves away, the children cross paths with the extremely rich and eccentric Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, who has collecting stories down to a science, and stores them away in a series of metal filing cabinets. (This is my favorite point in the book, not just because of how things play out but because I think once her character comes out of narrating, it truly shines. She's what my grandmother would call "a hoot".)

While Claudia and Jamie's parents are frantically looking for them, there really is no sense of the danger inherent in this business of running away. Perhaps this is because the book was written before the 1970's onslaught of After School Specials, but as a parent, it wasn't a happy thought thinking about my kids (about the same age as Claudia and Jamie) wandering NYC alone with less than $50.

The cost of living issue should spark some interesting discussion with your kids about how much stuff cost then vs. now. Be sure to talk about how the kids research Michelangelo by using (gasp) a card catalog and a library instead of Google.

We read the 35th anniversary edition which has a fantastic forward by the author (which comes afterward, incidentally). She discusses the differences between 1967 New York City and the big apple today. She touches on the kind of city it was then, before the World Trade Center was even built, compared to today's post-911 skyline. And she includes an eyebrow-raising story of life-imitating-art involving an angelic statue discovered in a building very near the museum itself.

All in all, it was everything I remembered. The kids loved it (even the jaded 11-yr-old who had recently returned from his own first venture to NYC) and I'm hoping that the next time I suggest a book from my list of childhood favorites, they won't balk as much... whether it has a Newbery sticker on the cover or not.

5 bookmarks (aka, wish I had a first edition signed copy...)

Author Interview: Susan Patron

I'm a big fan of Susan Patron, Newbery award winning author of The Higher Power of Lucky. She was kind enough to take some time away from writing to answer a few questions for Cool Kids Read. You can read my review of Lucky Breaks here. Thanks, Susan!

(Be sure to visit Susan's website, too: www.susanpatron.com)

Cool Kids Read: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Susan Patron: I was eight and our teacher had just finished reading Charlotte's Web aloud to the class. It left me consumed with a longing to write stories that would have a powerful effect on readers; I hadn't known it was possible to do that and I wanted to try.

CKR: What did your experiences as a librarian teach you about the children’s genre?

SP: That children live in the same world we do; they want reliable information, they want to escape, they want entertainment, and many want books that will help them figure out questions of mortality, morality, shades of meaning: life.

CKR: Who are your favorite authors to read, past and present?

SP: This is off the top of my head: Anne Tyler, John Updike, Anne Lamott, Stewart O'Nan, Elmore Leonard, Nancy Farmer, Theresa Nelson, James Marshall, Beverly Cleary, E.B. White, Beatrix Potter, William Steig, John Green, Geraldine McCaughrean…

CKR: What inspired the idea for The Higher Power of Lucky?

SP: It took over ten years to write the book, and a lot of my own life experiences played into it. For instance, my mother died in 2003 which made me realize—I hadn't known this before—that Lucky had lost her mother and was longing for her. Also, my husband and I spend a lot of time in California's Eastern Sierra area, which became the setting for the story and strongly affected its events.

CKR: What affect did winning the Newbery have on your writing?

SP: I feel, every single day, overwhelmingly grateful. At the same time, as I explain to children in presentations, you would think that winning a major award would be the highest validation of your work, and would free you from self-doubt and writer's block. Well, yes, of course it's hugely validating, but paradoxically the self-doubt and fear were magnified rather than banished. Writing the next book (Lucky Breaks) was enormously difficult because it felt as if a giant critical spotlight was shining on every page.

CKR: Do you have one particular character you enjoy writing more than the others?

SP: I love writing about Miles, who is loosely modeled on my little sister, Georgia.

CKR: Lucky Breaks continues your story, and I understand you are working on the third in the series. Did you always plan this to be a trilogy?

SP: No; I envisioned the first book as an entity but when I finished it I couldn't bear to leave Hard Pan. Then the same thing happened when I finished Lucky Breaks; I wanted to continue to explore the characters' stories. Writing this final book of the trilogy is satisfying because I get to tie up all loose ends (which I hadn't been aware were loose ends as I wrote them). I'm the kind of writer that discovers how it works as I go groping along, taking stabs and making a lot of mistakes, trying to figure out how best to tell the story.

CKR: Any hints you’d like to drop about what happens in the third book?

SP: Miles gets caught in a difficult, untenable situation; Brigitte faces an enormous challenge; the town of Hard Pan changes; and Lucky makes some discoveries that shift her understanding of the world.

CKR: The Higher Power of Lucky has been optioned – any news on when the film will be made?

SP: No news yet; stay tuned!

CKR: Anything else you'd like to share?

SP: Here are a couple of excerpts of letters from kids. They give the writer in me the courage to face the blank page and get on with the work.

"The first book was really good. It really got my attention. It made me want to read more and more. I also can't waite until it's time for the next book of Lucky."

"It is good that you used a lot of incredible vocab. I thought the book had a good meaning it was funny to. I just wanted to take this time to thank you very much."

"The book that I am reading is the very first book I have read by you. I think it is good because I can relate to all the characters. Have you ever been to Harrisburg? You should go sometime it is a good place and you can do a lot of other interesting things. I can connect to Lucky because my mom also died and I felt just like her."

It just doesn't get any better than that.

The Graveyard Book wins the Newbery

Yesterday, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals were announced and the American Library Association's midwinter conference in Denver (yay Denver!) I was  thrilled to learn that Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins) won the coveted Newbery. I love Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Stardust) and have wanted to read this new book for some time (it's in my to-read pile, but that's a very tall pile!) Congratulations Neil, well deserved I'm sure.

Other winners were The House in the Night (Houghton Mifflin) by Susan Marie Swanson who won the Caldecott, and another favorite of mine, Savvy (Dial/Walden Media) by Ingrid Law was named a Newbery Honor book. I hadn't read or even heard of any of the Printz winners for young adults, so I'm not sure what that means. Mo Willems won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for his Are You Ready to Play Outside? (Hyperion) The William C. Morris Award for YA Debut went to A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C Bunce (Scholastic/Levine) a book I've heard is fantastic.

For a complete list of winners, and the entire Publisher's Weekly article, click here. Congratulations to all the winners and honorees!

UPDATE:  I would also like to say how FANTASTIC it is to see a fantasy writer win this award!

Go to the official website to read more.