Information you should know:

The legend of Gravity is a picture book for young children. It is about a basketball team and was a nominee for the Bluebonnet reading award.

The Legend of Gravity is a tall tale that the author is remembering about a player he played with as a child named Gravity. Gravity is incredible at the game, perhaps the best ever, but better than that he’s a team player.

Why did I read this?

While I was in Armenia I started playing pickup basketball as a way to hang out and meet new people. I have my own tall tales from the court and thought that this book looked interesting. I figured after reading it I might have some pointers for better telling my own stories about my time there.

Review;

This book has 3 aspects I hope to cover, the first is illustrations, the second is the prose, and the third is the setting,

Jumping to Space

The Legend of Gravity is beautifully colored with large blocky shapes, many of which blend into the background. We see pictures of Gravity jump so high that he touches the sky. Basketballs are interlaid over planets and the backgrounds are hazy as though recalled from a memory. I especially love the illustrations of the players with little bio about the origin of their street names. This happens several times throughout the story and is reminiscent of character selection from a fighting game.

It’s also noticeable that the most detailed is put on two things. The first is the characters faces, after all this is a story about a team. So placing emphasis on the faces adds to the importance of each player. The second is the basketball. We don’t ever see the basket ball fade into the background instead it is clean and crisp in comparison to the lively movement and un-realism of the buildings and courts. I believe this is meant to represent the thing that brings the players together.

Rhymes on Rhymes

The Legend of Gravity is a wordy book than many other picture books. Each page has 40-50 words and many of the words considered to be more difficult. Rather than taking away from the book I think it has fantastic word choice choosing just the right word to fit into a sentence. The writing has clear flow and many of the sentences rhyme with each other creating natural breaks and pauses when reading out loud.

The rhymes and natural pauses make the book great to read even though it has a higher reading level because it breaks up the difficulty. This results in a larger book that doesn’t feel dense in text. Additionally many of the sentences and words bend around the pictures and create another sense of movement and progression through the story.

The setting:

The Legend of Gravity is an interesting story because it is set as a tall tale. It is unrealistic but it’s meant to be that way. The introduction is the author asking permission to tell a story like he might around a campfire. And the illustrations add to this with the art style. Many of the illustrations are blocky and don’t have much detail, but have a lot of color. This lends the aspects of a blurry memory to the story as well as a dreamlike quality. The art direction and prose come together to sell the idea that this is a tall tale.

Final Review:

The Legend of Gravity is a great book with a fun premise. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in sports in general and try to read it even to those who aren’t. The focus on teamwork and winning together is something that everyone could use more examples of. I rate this book a 9/10.

Reference: Palmer, C. (2022). The legend of Gravity: A tall basketball tale. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.