“We had been so close to missing each other, he and I. He had turned out to be the greatest gift of all.”
-The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
There are people we interact with in life that help us become the people we are supposed to be. While some are with us for a lifetime others pass through, but no matter how long or how short the visit the effect they have on our lives is never-ending.
Eleven year old Calpurnia Tate wants nothing more than to be anything, but a girl living in 1899. In The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, Calpurnia is already being raised to have the life of every other girl: cook, knit, and play the piano. But Calpurnia wants to know why there are more yellow grasshoppers than green ones and with the help of her grandfather she will learn much of these scientific curiosities and have a window to a world opened that most girls her age never get to see. 
In The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni we meet Sebastian Prendergast, orphaned and living with his grandmother in a geodesic dome in Iowa. Under his grandmother’s watchful eye Peter is being groomed to fulfill Buckminster Fuller’s vision to change the world. His sheltered life begins to crack however when at sixteen his grandmother suffers a stroke. Forced to make his own way he meets fellow sixteen year old Jared Whitcomb, a heart transplant recipient and lover of punk rock, who shows Sebastian a completely different way of living.
Like most kids out of college these days moving back home is a must while tackling the career world, but sometimes being at home can get a little too…not comfortable per se, but put you in a rut…a very, very deep one. For twenty-two year old Potter Mays, in The Slide by Kyle Beachy, that is the case. While having breakfast prepared every morning by your mother and having your best friend as your life coach might sound fine and dandy; it’s all a mirage. The underlying issues of home, relationships, and real life are overwhelming there ready to explode and at the end of it all Potter will have to grow up.
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