Publishers Weekly
12/05/2016
In this charming biography of Isaac Newton (1642–1727), Losure (Wild Boy) posits that “this last sorcerer—this greatest of all alchemists—was the same man who banished magic from the scientific world.” Portrayed as an uncommonly inquisitive, albeit reclusive, thinker with a secret addiction to alchemy (not an unusual preoccupation in a period when the borders between science and magic were uncertain), Newton may have written as many as a million words regarding alchemy, papers he kept while destroying many related to his revolutionary work in other fields: mathematics, optics, and what is now called physics. Interspersing engrossing chapters about alchemy (but largely ignoring the last third of Newton’s life), Losure uses a light touch to trace his childhood endeavors, his rise from student to professor at Cambridge’s Trinity College, his prickly relationship with other scientists in the Royal Society (Newton became a member in 1672), and the publication of his masterpiece, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in 1687. Period images and afterwords with curiosity-spiking headings such as “Stinks, Bangs & More Chymical Secrets” bring additional depth and interest to this study of Newton’s surprising pursuits. Ages 10–up. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Much about Newton's life has to be conjecture, but the author adds details from history and from her understanding of human behavior that make this splendid story both convincing and accessible to her readers. Illustrations, engravings from the time and pages from his notes, and interesting afterwords add to the appeal. Narrative nonfiction at its best and most convincing.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Losure adeptly presents the complex subjects of chemistry, math, and physics, along with alchemy-related recipes...an excellent addition to reinforce lessons on how to find and use primary sources. Losure has written a volume that both informs and excites. Highly recommended for middle school science biography sections.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
Perhaps even more impressive than her re-creation of Newton’s world, however, is her re-creation of the man himself—or rather, the boy who became the man—without embellishing the historical record with speculation and conjecture. Thus, the reader is left with the bare facts of Newton’s life—his difficult and troubled childhood, his prodigious talent at Cambridge, his prickly and reclusive nature, and his famous Laws of Motion—but more importantly, Losure has communicated his very essence, recalling Albert Einstein’s assertion that “imagination is more important than knowledge.”
—Horn Book (starred review)
In this charming biography of Isaac Newton (1642–1727), Losure (Wild Boy) posits that “this last sorcerer—this greatest of all alchemists—was the same man who banished magic from the scientific world.” ... Period images and afterwords with curiosity-spiking headings such as “Stinks, Bangs & More Chymical Secrets” bring additional depth and interest to this study of Newton’s surprising pursuits.
—Publishers Weekly
Losure’s treatment of those investigations is no arcane intellectual exercise but a biography that, in a manner similar to Kathleen Krull’s lively Isaac Newton (BCCB 5/06), delights in her subject’s curmudgeonly quirks and intellectual prowess...Losure’s “Most Amazing Addendum” offers excerpts from period notebooks and writings that readers won’t want to miss, as well as the expected citations, sources, and index.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Concise and direct, this biography of Isaac Newton makes optimal use of primary sources...A useful book on all counts.
—School Library Connection
Mary Losure dilates on [the] private quirks of the future mathematician and physicist in ‘Isaac the Alchemist,' a highly enjoyable work of narrative nonfiction for 9- to 15-year-olds.
—The Wall Street Journal
Mary Losure brings a poet's touch to this wondrous biography for children of the great scientist with its fascinating focus on his lonely childhood.
—Buffalo News
Losure writes with a lively enthusiasm and with admirable clarity, bringing to life a picture of a lonely, prickly boy who spent his life thinking about difficult questions seemingly only to satisfy his own drive to understand.
—The Booklist Reader
He would also (by following his own odd and lonely path) become one of the greatest scientists who ever lived.” Illustrated with engravings and pages from Newton’s notebooks and published works, Losure’s narrative account of Isaac Newton’s life and work supports these statements in an accessible and engaging fashion.
—Literacy Daily
This intimate portrait is a fascinating look at how science slowly but surely banished magic.
—Plain Dealer
School Library Journal
★ 12/01/2016
Gr 6–8—Losure brings a world-renowned scientist to life. Isaac Newton's story, from his tough formative years through the end of his life, is ably told and peppered with a mix of Old English and scientific terms. Fascinating details, such as experiments with mercury that involved him tasting the poisonous element, humanize him and will keep reader interest high. Losure adeptly presents the complex subjects of chemistry, math, and physics, along with alchemy-related recipes, by breaking up the narrative with engrossing images from Newton's published and private works and other books that he used or referred to in his research. The back matter includes excerpts from Newton's journals and other contemporaneous texts and an author's note that explains how Losure researched and used these materials—an excellent addition to reinforce lessons on how to find and use primary sources. VERDICT Losure has written a volume that both informs and excites. Highly recommended for middle school science biography sections.—Hilary Writt, Sullivan University, Lexington, KY
MARCH 2017 - AudioFile
Using primary sources and reasoned conjecture, Mary Losure chronicles the difficult formative years of Isaac Newton. Narrator Steven Crossley has a professorial-sounding English accent but bubbles with reverent enthusiasm for his subject, sometimes with humor. In the age before the development of physics, the prickly and solitary young Newton worked tirelessly to use mathematics to explain what was then viewed as magic. Much of Newton's story is gleaned from his own carefully kept notebooks. Listeners can almost see the twinkle in Crossley's eyes as he reads from preposterous medicinal concoctions of the time and from Newton's list of his own boyhood sins—such as making pies on Sunday. Newton's scientific contributions cannot be overstated. Although he never unlocked the mystery of alchemy, he discovered the laws of physics, light refraction, and planetary motion. L.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2016-10-26
The last of the magicians: Sir Isaac Newton.In the middle of the 17th century, in a Puritan England full of mystery and magic, Newton grew up over an apothecary shop, studied alchemy and the world around him, went to Cambridge, taught himself mathematics, and deduced the laws of motion that underlie our understanding of the physical world. Losure has created a compellingly readable biography of the father of modern physics and "greatest alchemist who ever lived," starting, appropriately for her audience, with his lonely childhood. She pieces together bits of information from his notebooks, from his biographers, old and new, and from social history to create a plausible character and bring readers into his world. Her Newton is bookish and curious about the world around him, mostly self-taught, reclusive and secretive about his discoveries—not only his efforts to create a "philosopher's stone," but also his observations about light (after they were scorned by another scientist), his invention of calculus, and his laws of motion. Much about Newton's life has to be conjecture, but the author adds details from history and from her understanding of human behavior that make this splendid story both convincing and accessible to her readers. Illustrations, engravings from the time and pages from his notes, and interesting afterwords add to the appeal. Narrative nonfiction at its best and most convincing. (acknowledgements, source notes, bibliography, index not seen) (Nonfiction. 10-15)
