Newton's Rainbow: The Revolutionary Discoveries of a Young Scientist

In this picture-book biography (for younger readers than Mary Losure's recent Isaac the Alchemist, rev. 1/17), Lasky focuses on Newton's early years, telling the story of his childhood and showing how young he was when he began making major contributions to science. Schoolboy Isaac uses the laws of motion that he would later derive mathematically to beat bigger and stronger classmates in a jumping contest, then goes home to make sketches on the wall and build a sundial in the yard. Lasky makes Isaac's fixation with science endearing while acknowledging the challenges it presented. (That "Isaac was a complete disaster as a farmer" is clear from a spread in which Hawkes deftly captures the drawbacks of agricultural inattention.) Lasky follows Isaac to Trinity College, Cambridge, and does not gloss over the challenges of being a poor student without family support. With a detour into basic epidemiology (accompanied by a surprisingly appealing illustration of a plague-carrying rat), the book turns to the familiar story of Isaac's scientific breakthroughs regarding gravity, calculus, and the light spectrum. Words and pictures in combination do a good job of rendering complex and theoretical concepts for elementary-age readers, and Lasky does her best to dispel the myth of the falling apple and emphasize the groundbreaking nature of Newton's discoveries. There are no source notes, but a bibliography provides resources for further reading. sarah rettger