(Greenwillow Books, 2002)
Since my last blog post featured a picture book about pizza,
it seemed entirely logical to follow that with ICE CREAM. Perfect meal, right?
I am already a big fan of writer/illustrator Elisha Cooper.
His descriptive phrasing in books like Building
and Beach consistently amazes me. The
watercolor/pencil drawings, often several smaller images filling a page, also
dazzle. I am pleased to say that Ice
Cream is up to the Cooper standards.
As soon as I read the print on the first spread—“It starts
with a cow. It starts with a lot of cows.”—I knew I had to purchase my own copy
of the book. And that, unfortunately, took some doing. It saddens me that a
book about ice cream by a talent creator like Cooper published by an imprint of
HarperCollins could go out of print. We can still buy Bread and Jam for Frances (1964) with little difficulty, but no Ice Cream? Something is amiss. Still, I
did manage to order a used book online, a WITHDRAWN copy from the suddenly
deprived Sno-Isle Regional Library in Washington. Your loss, my gain.
Cooper takes us on the full ice cream making journey, from
cow in the field to carton in the grocery store. There are lots of interesting
facts that Cooper shares.
·
When the farmer milks the cows, “[e]ach cow
gives about five gallons of milk.”
·
After milking, he removes the suction teat cups
and “dabs disinfectant on each teat.”
·
At the factory, the ice cream machine “is a
steel, piston-pumping, cream-dripping, gadget-whirring, water-spraying,
pipe-rattling, chocolate-leaking animal.” (Chocolate leaking?! I’m thinking
about an opportunity! Or a tragic loss.)
It’s the extra details, observations that are technically
not part of the ice cream process, that add authenticity to Cooper’s text.
·
At the farm, the truck driver finishes pumping
the milk into the truck, “opens the milk house, and three cats rush in to lap
up spilled milk. They have white whiskers and look happy until the farm dog
chases them off.”
·
At the factory, the silos that store the milk “are
so big, the worker could swim laps across them.”
·
“The taster is so important to the ice cream
factory that it insures her tongue.”
As with other Cooper books, the words are playfully arranged
on the page when an artful arrangement complements the message. For instance,
when referring to stirring up the ingredients, the words swirl. The text twists
and turns on the page in which pint cartons are filled on a conveyor belt. Some
may find the layout gimmicky, but kids (and I) find this touch makes for a
livelier read.
Not that Ice Cream needs
any extras. The tasty topic, mixed with Cooper’s descriptive writing and soft-swirl
illustrations, combine to create one delectable book.
