Ice Cream

Gibbons, Gail. (2006). Ice Cream: the Full Scoop. New York: Holiday House.

Literary Genre: Informational (Non-fiction Picture Book) 

Gail Gibbons brings everyone’s favorite cool treat to life with this brightly water-colored, cheerfully illustrated book. Gibbons shares the history of ice cream from a snow, rice, and milk mixture to its modern factory made mixture we enjoy today. Children will love discovering all of ice cream’s interesting facts, such as, the first ice-cream maker, which cows produce the creamiest milk, who invented the ice cream cone, how sundaes got their name, and much more.

I chose to read this book because a student I work with loves history and ice cream is her favorite treat, this was a perfect combination of those things. The student especially liked the illustrations with captions to explain how the ice-cream maker and different processes at the factory works. I especially liked how Gibbons included the names of people involved with ice cream, so that students could be encouraged to expand their knowledge by reading more about Nancy Johnson, Marco Polo, and others. Gail Gibbons is well known for her non-fiction picture books and her work is respected because she provides accurate information in an attractive and interesting manner that is well suited for children of all ages.