Who Gives a Hoot? (Calpurnia Tate, Girl Vet #3) by Jacqueline Kelly

Who Gives a Hoot? (Calpurnia Tate, Girl Vet #3) Reviews

• 
  DaNae

  I love how a science-based mystery is solved in this one. But not enough Travis.
• 
  Erika

  Read to my students
• 
  Hillary

  I’ve really enjoyed these series and think it’s a great way of engaging kiddos with nature. However,
  I’ve two serious complaints with this latest installment. Early on in the book “the bloodthirsty Comanche” are mentioned, it also mentions how they’re moved to a reservation. Why is this present in the book if there isn’t going to be any respectful conversation or point. Same thing by mentioning the Civil War. These two topics could have been covered with care and respect but felt like side points and bordering on disrespectful at that. It left a real sour taste for me.
• 
  Billie

  This is the third book in the Calpurnia Tate Girl Vet series. This book is written for ages seven through twelve. Callie and Granddaddy do a little boat exploring on the San Marcos River and find some interesting items. They spot an owl in the water and use a net to get it out. This is where the mystery comes in. Enjoyable reading with nice illustrations. I received this book compliments of Goodreads Giveaways for an honest review.
• 
  Denice Hein

  A nice tale of a girl wanting to be educated and more than her status will allow in 1901. I liked the text type and illustrations for a beginning chapter book. However I felt let down by the historical reference to 'bloodthirsty Comanche'. I hope for something in the story to counter act the negative stereotypical view but never found it. The Mexican broken English bad grammar speaking farm hand was also a disappointment that won't be presented in my school library.
• 
  Kassie

  Another great transitional novel in the Calpurnia Tate series. In this book, Calpurnia rehabilitates an owl. While I like the series and enjoy the Girl Vet subsidies for young readers, I hope for another longer Calpurnia novel in the future.
• 
  Faith Elizabeth Hough

  Loving this series, and Callie is such a super role model. I highly recommend these books for new readers ready to take on a slight challenge.
  I missed Travis in this one, though!
• 
  Lori

  2.5 stars.
  
  I read “Who Gives A Hoot” with my 5 year old. The book has a simple sweet story with an endearing protagonist and despite the vocabulary being above her head at times, my daughter enjoyed it and asked to read more of Calpurnia’s adventures. We recently read the Zoey and Sassafras book Marshmallows and Dragons, which is also about a young girl who nurses an animal back to health and learns about science along the way, and it is hard for me not to compare the two. I liked the voice of Calpurnia a bit better as her observations and exclamations are believable, animated, and childlike. Zoey and Sassafras is more magical/fanciful and also more overtly teaches the scientific method, while Calpurnia offers a historical and natural setting.
  
  Who Gives a Hoot would be a good book for read aloud to tie together elementary science, history, and build vocabulary However, the book loses a star for me due to two characterizations of people of color, which are actually the only 2 references to people of color in the whole book. Early in the book Calpurnia notes that “the bloodthirsty Comanche had hunted here for centuries before being driven onto the reservation in the Oklahoma Territory”. This description may be in line with the thinking of a white Texan family in the 1890s but it does not relate at all to the plot of the book and it surprised me that a book published last year would have a protagonist portraying that stereotype as fact, especially a protagonist who is otherwise thoughtful and forward thinking. The only character in the book who is not white is a Spanish speaking hired man who uses broken English with very poor grammar. If the character were more developed might not be problematic but when these 2 descriptions are the only representation of people of color in the whole book, it is disappointing at best.
• 
  Barbara

  As I’ve been making my way through these chapter books based on The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate but intended for a younger audience, I’ve been impressed by the sureness with which the author depicts rural Texas in the early 1900s. Life was very different then, of course, and the roles of females were far more restricted than they are today. In this third installment featuring Calpurnia, who dreams of becoming a veterinarian, she and her beloved grandfather find an owl in the river while they are boating. The bird is in need of rescue, and being compassionate, they do so. But when they take it to the local veterinarian, he is unable to find anything wrong with it. Calpurnia must nurse it back to health, providing mice for it to eat. Aware that the owl must be returned to the wild, Calpurnia doesn’t let herself get too attached to it. By chance, she happens upon the answer to its ailments when she makes a trip to the store for her mother. While her pet-loving younger brother, Travis, only makes a brief appearance in the book, Calpurnia continues to be fascinated by science, and the book features many details about owls, including their eating habits. I was only a little disappointed that no one thought of the reason for the owl’s unhealthy condition, leaving a young girl to figure that out. As usual, I enjoyed how the author makes it clear that Calpurnia is her own person, nothing like the girl her more traditional mother would like her to be. The text is engaging, and the illustrations enable readers to picture Calpurnia and her surroundings with little effort. This one is a reliable read aloud for late elementary grade students. There are so many stories behind the various characters the author introduces that readers will be intrigued and have plenty of questions.
• 
  Lisa

  We had gotten the original two books (The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and its sequel) and will NOT be finishing them. I reviewed the first one with some content considerations I wish I had known before my daughter read almost 150 pages.
  
  So it was with a decent amount of trepidation I began skim reading these before clearing them.
  Likes: the illustrator, the layout, Travis and his big heart for animals-honestly he's more the desired role model for my daughter than Callie.
  
  Didn't like: Callie and her preference for what her grandfather thinks/science and not respecting her teacher, her mother, others. Negative attitudes toward womanly/home skills (cooking, sewing, etc). Somewhat negative relationship with at least one brother and her mother.
  Counting Sheep Book 2: secret keeping;
  
  Who Gives a Hoot? Book 3: pg 12 "bloodthirsty Comanche", pg 28 self name calling "idiot", pg 42 witches scream compared to owl sound, pg 57 "Good Heavens."
  
  A Prickly Problem Book 4: The very first page already had me lowering my opinion of the book with its name calling-big theme about being stupid. The dog and humans. Secret keeping (from her mom) to spare her. Negative attitude toward teacher, name calling multiple times. Her punching the new kid because of his comment about her grandfather being weird and thinking her mean brother and this kid deserved each other.
  
  Not a series I would own, reread, or recommend.
• 
  Maura

  I had read Skunked as a read-aloud to my 4 year old months ago, and he still asks why the skunk sprayed the schoolhouse, so I thought he might enjoy this next installation in the Calpurnia Tate, Girl Vet series. He loves animals and loves science, and I'm really trying to introduce positive, strong girl characters for him before he gets infected by the pervasive idea that books about girls are only for girls, so on paper this book is perfect. But it fell pretty flat for both of us.
  
  On the positive side, I was really glad that this book was totally centered around Calpurnia, as I felt that Skunked focused too much on the character of Travis. But this book really lacked the spark that the original two Calpurnia Tate novels had, and I found that my four year old and I were just not really interested in the fate of the owl, and we struggled to get through the book after the first few chapters. We did push through and finish it, but I'm not as enthusiastic about the rest of the series. I'd really hope for more of a conflict that Calpurnia can overcome through her moxie and courage. My 4 year old did enjoy the detail that dead mice have to be jiggled on a string to attract an owl predator, though!
• 
  Abby Jones

  A fun early reader for the girl in your life who loves animals. Calpurnia Tate is a curious girl with a love for science and animals. Her Grandfather takes her in hand to teach her about the natural world. The writing is wonderfully fun with just enough new things to challenge your young reader, but all explained so as not to bog down the story. Calpurnia lives in Texas, so there is an extra bit of love there. I also enjoyed her willingness to touch gross things to get the job done. I would have loved this story as a child since I too, wanted to be a vet, or do something related to animals. Calpurnia's courage would have inspired me. I appreciate that this book showed how our choices effect the animal world without getting preaching. I also appreciated the strong female lead that didn't whine about being a girl. This is a chapter book, perfect for your eight to twelve year old readers. I got through it in about 15 minutes if you like to read what your kids are reading.
  Rated G: Evolution accepted as just obvously true.
• 
  Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book*

  Kelly, Jacqueline Who Gives a Hoot? 106 pgs. Henry Holt and Company (Macmillan), 2017. $15.99. Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: G.
  
  Calpurnia Tate and her grandfather are looking for dinosaur bones. While rowing on the river, suddenly an owl drops into the water right in front of them. Owls don’t swim or dive for their food, so this is strange. Rescuing the owl in a butterfly net, they take the sopping bird to the vet. Nothing seems physically wrong with it, so Calpurnia takes it home for a few days to make it’s well before releasing it, but what caused the owl to fall from the sky in the first place?
  
  Book 3 in the Calpurnia Tate Girl Vet series has less drama than Skunked or Counting Sheep, but the simple story works itself into an interesting mystery with an environmental message. This whole series is a definite buy for your elementary library - no need to read the longer fiction books first, and these can be read in any order.
  
  EL - ESSENTIAL Lisa Librarian
  
  https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2018...
• 
  Aolund

  Yeesh, this book. So there's the line "Sometimes we'd also find arrowheads left behind by the bloodthirsty Comanche who had hunted here for centuries before being driven onto the reservation in the Oklahoma Territory" (12). While in part factually accurate—the Comanche *had* hunted there for centuries before being driven to a reservation—the adjective "bloodthirsty" is so stereotypical and loaded when "powerful" or "skillful warrior" would have absolutely worked in its place that it makes me unable to recommend this book. There's also Alberto, "the hired man," who I read as Mexican-American and who speaks exaggeratedly broken English. The book is set in Texas some 30 years after the Civil War (Calpurnia's grandfather was a Confederate soldier). It certainly makes sense for there to be Mexican-American, bilingual characters present. But for Alberto to be presented speaking in such exaggerated broken English is stereotypical and disrespectful. Will not be recommending.
• 
  Lisa

  Calpurnia Tate and her grandfather are looking for dinosaur bones. While rowing on the river, suddenly an owl drops into the water right in front of them. Owls don’t swim or dive for their food, so this is strange. Rescuing the owl in a butterfly net, they take the sopping bird to the vet. Nothing seems physically wrong with it, so Calpurnia takes it home for a few days to make it’s well before releasing it, but what caused the owl to fall from the sky in the first place?
  
  Book 3 in the Calpurnia Tate Girl Vet series has less drama than Skunked or Counting Sheep, but the simple story works itself into an interesting mystery with an environmental message. This whole series is a definite buy for your elementary library - no need to read the longer fiction books first, and these can be read in any order.
  
  Cross posted to
  http://kissthebook.blogspot.com Check it out!
• 
  Angie

  So. I wanted to love this as much as I loved the first two Calpurnia Tate books. They never found juvenile readers at my school but the adults that I convinced to read it loved it. And historical fic just never has been a big draw beyond I Survived and, lately, the Ranger in Time books.
  
  This one ... well, the “bloodthirsty Comanche” mention is not necessary. Plus the hired man’s stilted English. And the kids that would be reading this (fairly simple beginning chapter book) wouldn’t really enjoy or understand all the scientific terms. Some, yes. And could it be useful in a read aloud? Maybe, if not for the Comanche reference. But alone? I’ve not met that kid reader, anyway.
• 
  Mary

  What a great little chapter book! If I was still teaching, this would neatly tie science, language arts, geography, and history all together in an easy to read, fascinating book. Calpurnia Tate is a likable, lively main character and it was a pleasure to read and review this Goodreads giveaway! (And now I'll send it on to one of my teacher friends.)
• 
  Jim Sibigtroth

  This should make a pretty good read-aloud book for 2nd graders. It is relatively short so it can be read in 3 20-minute sessions. I previously read Skunked!...(book 1 of this series) to 6 classes of 2nd graders and they all loved it.
  
  This book had a few nice bits of science.
• 
  Bethe

  Calpurnia and her grandfather find an owl about to drown in the river and help to save its life. That part of the story is good - but I’d like to know if they ever schedule a trip to visit family in Colorado, the excuse to search for dinosaur fossils.
• 
  Nahuatl P Vargas

  Me encanta esta colección pero no creo que podamos dejar pasar la frase "bloodthristy Comanche" que aparece en la página 12 y menos en un texto de 2017.
  También la manera que describen a alguna persona hispanohablante deja que desear.
• 
  Nicole Falardeau

  Cute book for girls
• 
  Ketti

  Another charming story about Calpurnia Tate. Keep them coming Jacqueline Kelly!
• 
  Galion Public Library Teens

  Review by H.D. : "A cute book. Kinda gross but can be advised for someone who likes owls." (3.5 stars)
• 
  H W

  Read-aloud for the 8yo. The book is just okay.
• 
  Erica Flory

  I love these books!