Footeprint
Lindsay H. Metcalf, author
Lindsay H. Metcalf grew up on a Kansas farm and is the coeditor of the poetry anthologies No Voice Too Small and No World Too Big, as well as author of Outdoor Farm, Indoor Farm; Beatrix Potter, Scientist; and Farmers Unite! Planting a Protest for Fair Prices. An experienced journalist, Lindsay has covered a variety of changemakers as a reporter, editor, and columnist for the Kansas City Star and other news outlets.
Read more about Lindsay.
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Shelf Awareness, starred review
Lindsay Metcalf (Tomatoes on Trial) draws climate science pioneer Eunice Newton Foote out of the shadows of history in the expressive, evocative fictionalized novel-in-verse, Footeprint. Through melodic third-person poetry, Metcalf describes both the scientific and women's rights advancements this little-known American inventor achieved by "kicking the glass ceiling/ to breathe the air above." Metcalf based her work of fiction on historical fact, using minimal speculation and including images of various individuals noted in the book as well as reproductions of historical documents. Eunice Newton, a descendent of Isaac Newton, is born in 1819 into a family that nurtures her curiosity and independence. Her parents send Eunice to Troy Female Seminary, the only school "in New York/ with a mission to teach science to girls." At Troy, Eunice rooms with Cate Cady, sister of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and she develops a lifelong friendship with both Cadys. When Eunice marries lawyer Elisha Foote, he "sees Eunice for her beauty & her brain" and she believes he "has the smarts & ambition/ to keep pace" with her. The pair "vow to leap with both feet/ into a revolution/ & a future/ united." Eunice goes to work inventing, but the broader world is not as open-minded as the Newtons and the Footes. "Because of the law,/ because of the world,/ Eunice decides/ her invention's best chance/ rests in Elisha's hands." Elisha "becomes the face" of Eunice's first patented invention--Regulating the Heat of Stoves--while "Eunice longs for the day/ when her face will be enough." Eunice and Elisha attend the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights conference. There, they brave the risks and sign their names on the attendance roster--in the list of 100 names, Eunice's name appears fifth, after Lucretia Mott, Harriet Cady Eaton, Margaret Pryor, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In time, the work of the women's suffrage movement enables Eunice to publish her ground-breaking discovery of carbon dioxide's effects on the atmosphere under her own name in 1857. In 1859, however, John Tyndale "discovered the greenhouse effect," meaning Eunice was forgotten until 2010, when a "retired petroleum geologist" found Eunice's work and set the record straight. Metcalf's excellent research and her artistic approach to presenting the information create a mesmerizing reading experience. The author's clever use of figurative language emphasizes the struggles Eunice endures due to gender bias--"Like the layers of her dress,/ [Eunice] must peel away misbeliefs/ one breakthrough at a time"--and her verse (often flowing into concrete poetry) displays Eunice Newton Foote as the breathtaking work of art that she is. --Jen Forbus, freelancer
Shelf Talker: A delightful novel-in-verse corrects the history books on climate science by spotlighting the incredible life of scientist and women's rights activist Eunice Newton Foote
Shelf Awareness, starred reviewKirkus Reviews
A fictionalized account of the life of Eunice Newton Foote (1819–1888), a pioneering but long overlooked climate scientist, inventor, and women’s rights advocate.
Metcalf traces her subject’s early years in a family that nurtured her curiosity, eventually sending her to New York’s only science-focused girls’ seminary, where her roommate was Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s sister. She married Elisha Foote, a lawyer and inventor, who supported her experiments and her fight for gender equality. In 1856, the American Association for the Advancement of Science accepted Foote’s groundbreaking study on greenhouse gases—but demanded a man present it at their convention. Elisha was voted a member of the AAAS; Foote was not. In 1860, English scientist John Tyndall was credited with “discovering” greenhouse gases. Still, Foote carried on, patenting her inventions. A speculative section in which Foote and her daughter Mary travel to Europe and confront Tyndall feels inessential to the narrative. The final chapter describes how, in 2010, retired geologist Raymond Sorenson stumbled upon Foote’s original 1856 report and wrote an article that set the record straight. Although at times her reliance on figurative language feels excessive, Metcalf’s research shines through in the vivid details and contextual information about racial and gender bias surrounding Foote, who was white. This novel in verse effectively illuminates the life of a woman who pursued science despite systemic barriers.
A valuable corrective to erasure in climate science history.
Publishers Weekly
Using unadorned verse, Metcalf (Tomatoes on Trial) chronicles the experiences of scientist Eunice Newton Foote (1819–1888) combatting gender discrimination to pursue patents for her groundbreaking inventions in this comprehensive fictionalized biography of an overlooked pioneer. Born in Goshen, Conn., Foote—the youngest of 12 and cousin of Sir Isaac Newton—is raised in a science-minded family (“Justice & science/ fold into curious Eunice,/ mold into her bones”). At 15, she attends Troy Female Seminary, the country’s first school for women’s higher education. In 1841, she marries attorney Elisha Foote and, in 1842, invents a device that regulates the heat of stoves. Aware of the scientific community’s prejudice against women, Foote shares her ideas by whatever means she can, including applying for patents under her husband’s name. And when Irish scientist John Tyndall is credited with launching initial investigations into climate science in 1859, Metcalf challenges that accreditation in a poem titled “Combustion,” employing forthright lines to detail Foote’s own experiments on greenhouse gases and her subsequent findings, which were presented to the American Association of the Advancement of Science in 1856—three years before Tyndall. Diligently researched passages highlight the accomplishments of a female scientist only recently being recognized for her discoveries.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
There were plenty of obstacles for a science-minded girl to pursue an education in the early 1800s, but a young Eunice Newton was lucky to have a supportive family. They scraped together the funds to send her to the Troy Female Seminary in upstate New York, where she’d not only study science but also be introduced to ideas of women’s suffrage and abolition. Post-graduation, she’d marry Elisha Foote, who would become her collaborator in invention and biggest fan; the fact that her first patent had to be recorded under her husband’s name further spurred her interest in women’s rights, and both she and Elisha would later sign the Declaration of Sentiments. Her passion for science never faltered, even as she became a mother and grandmother, and she’d eventually publish her discovery that greenhouse gases trapped heat. But that groundbreaking development was unfortunately attributed to a man, John Tyndall, who would later be considered the father of climate science. This verse novel contains an enormous amount of factual detail on a range of subjects and figures, including climate science, major players in women’s suffrage, and the US patent process. The strikingly elegant text, however, imbues the linear narrative with a hefty amount of emotion, so that the overall story is one of a fully-fleshed out character radically moving within but not defined by the social and scientific worlds of the 1800s. Eunice took on each of her roles, both professional and personal, with a deep sense of devotion and responsibility, and the book allows for an authentic picture of a woman struggling but mostly succeeding in juggling career and family. A lack of discussion around the privilege that enabled Foote’s success limits the book’s scope but not its narrative success; the poetic form, visual layout, and cohesive plot make this an exemplar of verse storytelling. Source notes, quotations, and a bibliography are provided.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-633-5
Ages: 12 and up
Page count: 304
51/2 x 81/4
Publication date: February 10, 2026
