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Re: Calpurnia Tate
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From: Melody Allen <mla.ret929_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:49:25 -0500
I also found the plot weakened by a lack of any real tension. It seemed that the reader was just dropped in on this family. They and their house came to life, but I felt some whole chapters could have been omitted with no real loss to understanding her character or feminist dilemma. I also found it odd that a first person narrative with such complex language came from a girl with an education that was shown to be lacking. Considering her own vocabulary, I found it hard to accept that she could not spell mutant and other words. The snow did make a pretty ending and a symbol for her hopes for her life being realized.
Loved the winner - so original to see time travel not from the point of view of the traveler, such wonderfully developed secondary characters, relationships and subplots.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon a little gem - the hero's quest with the boon being the feminist version - stronger community and connectedness.
Just reading Claudette Colvin - great backmatter and loved the story of how he connected with her and did the interviews, wonderful for people to see what goes into the writing and documenting of the book of this quality.
Melody Allen
On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Giffard, Sue wrote:
I very much enjoyed the relationship between Calpurnia and her grandfather, and I thought that Kelly did a wonderful job of showing the difficulties of being a girl at the turn of the 19th century. The book was very touching, and I liked that aspect of it very much. But I did feel that the lack of tension in the plot was a problem, even for me, and would probably be a problem for many of my students. It had the feeling of daily life, the texture of life as it is lived: it left me feeling that it wouldn't really matter if I finished the book or not. I stopped wondering "what's going to happen next?" even as I enjoyed the events and relationships in the book. More seriously for me, I felt that the near-invisibility of African American characters on a cotton plantation in 19th century Texas was problematic. Other than Viola, it's as though this family lives in isolation on this farm. When Calpurnia goes out to dig cotton, she gets the hoe from the tool shed. Who else is out there in the fields? Are there no Afr ican American children on this farm? It reads almost as though it's a play, with a finite setting on a stage: you see the house of the plantation owners but nothing more. Not a single one of the reviews I've found mentioned this.
Sue Giffard Ethical Culture School New York, NY 10023 sgiffard_at_ecfs.org (212)712-6292
"Perhaps the only victory available
the victory of the heart over its own inclinations for despair, revenge and hatred." (Leonard Cohen, September 24, 2009)
-----Original Message-----
From: Renee McGrath
Sent: Mon 1/25/2010 7:28 PM To: ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject:
Calpurnia Tate
I liked the ending of Calpurnia Tate very much. It imparted all the hope that Calpurnia had for the new century in a such a beautiful, subtle way.
When she wakes up on the dawn of the first day of the 20th century, all is quiet, too quiet, until she ventures outside to see that overnight snow has blanketed the ground. As she walks along, she sees a coyote and signs that other creatures have been there -they too are waking up along with her to a new century.
I loved this book from the first to the very last page.
-- Renee McGrath Youth Services Manager Nassau Library System 900 Jerusalem Avenue Uniondale, NY 11553 516-292-8920
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:49:25 -0500
I also found the plot weakened by a lack of any real tension. It seemed that the reader was just dropped in on this family. They and their house came to life, but I felt some whole chapters could have been omitted with no real loss to understanding her character or feminist dilemma. I also found it odd that a first person narrative with such complex language came from a girl with an education that was shown to be lacking. Considering her own vocabulary, I found it hard to accept that she could not spell mutant and other words. The snow did make a pretty ending and a symbol for her hopes for her life being realized.
Loved the winner - so original to see time travel not from the point of view of the traveler, such wonderfully developed secondary characters, relationships and subplots.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon a little gem - the hero's quest with the boon being the feminist version - stronger community and connectedness.
Just reading Claudette Colvin - great backmatter and loved the story of how he connected with her and did the interviews, wonderful for people to see what goes into the writing and documenting of the book of this quality.
Melody Allen
On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Giffard, Sue wrote:
I very much enjoyed the relationship between Calpurnia and her grandfather, and I thought that Kelly did a wonderful job of showing the difficulties of being a girl at the turn of the 19th century. The book was very touching, and I liked that aspect of it very much. But I did feel that the lack of tension in the plot was a problem, even for me, and would probably be a problem for many of my students. It had the feeling of daily life, the texture of life as it is lived: it left me feeling that it wouldn't really matter if I finished the book or not. I stopped wondering "what's going to happen next?" even as I enjoyed the events and relationships in the book. More seriously for me, I felt that the near-invisibility of African American characters on a cotton plantation in 19th century Texas was problematic. Other than Viola, it's as though this family lives in isolation on this farm. When Calpurnia goes out to dig cotton, she gets the hoe from the tool shed. Who else is out there in the fields? Are there no Afr ican American children on this farm? It reads almost as though it's a play, with a finite setting on a stage: you see the house of the plantation owners but nothing more. Not a single one of the reviews I've found mentioned this.
Sue Giffard Ethical Culture School New York, NY 10023 sgiffard_at_ecfs.org (212)712-6292
"Perhaps the only victory available
the victory of the heart over its own inclinations for despair, revenge and hatred." (Leonard Cohen, September 24, 2009)
-----Original Message-----
From: Renee McGrath
Sent: Mon 1/25/2010 7:28 PM To: ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject:
Calpurnia Tate
I liked the ending of Calpurnia Tate very much. It imparted all the hope that Calpurnia had for the new century in a such a beautiful, subtle way.
When she wakes up on the dawn of the first day of the 20th century, all is quiet, too quiet, until she ventures outside to see that overnight snow has blanketed the ground. As she walks along, she sees a coyote and signs that other creatures have been there -they too are waking up along with her to a new century.
I loved this book from the first to the very last page.
-- Renee McGrath Youth Services Manager Nassau Library System 900 Jerusalem Avenue Uniondale, NY 11553 516-292-8920
---Received on Fri 29 Jan 2010 10:49:25 PM CST
