This is an upper middle grade novel that transports the reader to 1899 Texas where our eleven-year-old narrator “Callie Vee” experiences life as the lone daughter among six brothers on 
a cotton farm with fields of pecan trees. The book opens up with a tactile description of the oppressive heat where Callies’ three younger brothers “managed to sleep midday, sometimes even piled atop one another like damp, steaming puppies.”
The beauty of this book lies in the depiction of life in the late nineteenth century. This novel never gets bogged down with gobs of description but instead manages to quietly evoke another time and place that offers a completely immersive experience to the reader.
Callie becomes fascinated with the natural world and documents the insects and animals that she encounters on her family farm. Soon after she begins writing in her special Notebook, she forges an unusual bond with her intimidating and distant grandfather who is himself an amateur naturalist. Callie discovers Charles Darwin and begins to recognize the evolutionary aspect of biology in her scientific observations. At the same time, she discovers her own identity and the challenge of following her dreams in a time where there are few options for women.
This book was wonderful. Although the protagonist is eleven-years-old, the vocabulary and concepts are never simplified for the reader. I love that the reader is treated with the utmost respect by the writer. The structure of this book conforms to a more literary fiction style of writing where individual chapters sometimes read like disconnected short stories. Although somewhat episodic in nature, the book does focus on the growth and ‘evolution’ of Callie’s self-awareness as well as the bond with her grandfather. The insights and humor are quiet and smart.
A wonderful read. Truly.
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