The Gravity Tree: The True Story of a Tree That Inspired the World by Anna Crowley Redding

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Gravity Tree: The True Story of a Tree That Inspired the World by Anna Crowley Redding Elizabeth Bush Redding, Anna Crowley The Gravity Tree: The True Story of a Tree That Inspired the World; illus. by Yas Imamura. HarperCollins, 2021 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780062967367 $17.99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad 5-8 yrs University of Cambridge student Isaac Newton was sent home to Woolsthorpe on a 1665-1666 hiatus to avoid the plague, and he would later recount how an apple falling from a tree under which he sat would set him musing on why the apple fell straight down. Not only would Newton become famous, but so would the tree itself, becoming a pilgrimage site for science and history aficionados. After it was felled by an early nineteenth century storm, its wreckage was pilfered by souvenir seekers, but it rerooted, and subsequent caretakers have cleverly safeguarded the original by sending seeds, grafts, and saplings to institutions worldwide. This is exactly the footnote-writ-large kind of tale to entrance classroom and storytime attendees, but Redding and Imamura never fully commit to celebrating either the scientists or the Gravity Tree, leaving listeners with lots of basic, unanswered questions (Who’s in charge of the tree and how can I get a piece too? Where in that cool picture of Queen Elizabeth in her carriage is the piece of tree reported to be embedded? Is that picture of the Gravity Tree with scientific notes a reproduction of Newton’s own work?). End matter, which focuses mainly on Newton’s legacy, offers little direction in notes, Newton timeline, or bibliography to redirect kids of more arborist rather than physicist bent. [End Page 396] Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois