Isaac the Alchemist by Mary Losure

This biography for middle graders is an engaging introduction to Isaac Newton’s singular genius and his peculiar obsessions.

Isaac the Alchemist: Secrets of Isaac Newton, Reveal’d by Mary Losure.  Candlewick, 2017, 163 pages, including appendix

Reading Level: middle grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-15

Our story begins in Grantham, England, ca. 1652.  In the attic of the village apothecary’s house, a boy lies awake thinking of machines and mechanics and motion.  He is small for his age, and quiet—gifted with his hands but not much for hard physical labor.  Or soft social skills, for that matter.  He has a complicated relationship with his mother, who abandoned him (or that’s what it felt like) to marry a clergyman.  Though they reunited when that second husband died, Isaac never quite got over it.  But not very far from now, he will find useful pursuits to occupy himself, such as invention “fluxions” (calculus), discerning the nature of light, and unlocking the principles of universal gravity.  He is, of course, Isaac Newton and his story is winningly told with a focus on one of his quirkiest traits: his lifelong obsession with the medieval science of alchemy.

Newton emerges as a personality—secretive, touchy, not always nice—and a singular genius whose gifts no one can explain.  This biography could serve as a springboard to further study, using the appeal of “magic” as a hook.  It’s not a stretch, for Newton represents a watershed in the history of science.  In the appendix, the author tells how 20^th-century economist John Maynard Keynes purchased a collection of Newton papers and was astonished to find it brimming with alchemical speculations.  Keynes wrote that the great scientist was “not the first of the age of reason.  He was the last of the magicians.”  In the end, however, that angle may be overplayed in this book (and science has not completely outgrown its entanglement with magic).  One big lack is the spiritual dimension: though not an orthodox Christian (he denied the Trinity), Newton was deeply religious, motivated to find the philosopher’s stone in part to demonstrate the rationality and power of God.  Otherwise, Isaac the Alchemist is an engaging peek into a fascinating mind.

Cautions: None

Overall rating: 4.25 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic value: 4.5