Ice Cream: The Full Scoop

Gibbons, Gail. 2006. Ice Cream: The Full Scoop. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 978-0-8234-2000-1.

This book, with its clear description of the ice-cream making process and its ice-cream-hued illustrations, is both fun and informative. Gibbons begins by describing the invention of ice cream (in China 3000 years ago!) and following its various permutations through the ages up to the advent of the hand-cranked ice-cream maker in 1841. Then she describes the modern ice-cream making process from start to finish. Throughout the book, labels on the cheerful cartoon-style illustrations give more information, such as describing the parts and functions of the ice-cream maker.

The design of the book is simple but clever. A repeating pattern of colored tiles – the logo for the “Full Scoop” ice-cream company – runs across the bottom of each two-page spread. It’s repeated on the lids of the ice-cream cartons being made at the factory and the truck that delivers the ice cream to the store.

Kids at the target age of this book might not understand everything Gibbons describes (what are emulsifiers, anyway?), but there’s plenty here to keep them interested and informed.

There is one area where Gibbons’ facts might not be totally accurate – the hotly-contested matter of who invented the first ice-cream cone. Gibbons tells the story of a waffle vendor at the St. Louis World’s fair who made his waffles into cones when the ice-cream vendor next door to him ran out of cups. This is one version of the story, the claimant in this case being a man named Ernest Hamwi who was selling crisp waffles called zalabias. But there are at least five other people at the World’s Fair alone who also claimed to have invented the ice-cream cone, among them Abe Doumar, who said he put ice cream in his zalabias and sold them as “Syrian ice-cream sandwiches,” Nick and Albert Kabbaz, who might have invented the ice-cream cone while working for Hamwi, a man named Charles Robert Menches, and a man named David Avayou, who said he got the idea from seeing people eating ice-cream out of paper cones while he was in France (Powell 2006). No one has ever been able to prove who was telling the truth.

I would use this book in an ice-cream themed event, maybe including a tour of the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham (yum). Unlike Gibbons, I would tell the story of all the people who claimed to have invented the ice-cream cone and have the kids decide which they think is the most plausible.

In Booklist, Jennifer Matson says, “Adding to the author-illustrator's reliable oeuvre of informational picture books, this will provide solid support for ice cream-themed field trips or classroom projects.”

Matson, Jennifer. Booklist. Qtd. in Amazon. com. http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Cream-Scoop-Gail-Gibbons/dp/0823420000/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0423122-5982232?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173392670&sr=1-1.

Powell, Marilyn. 2006. Ice Cream: The Delicious History. New York: Overlook Press. Pages 145-149.