In cheerful watercolors and a lucid text, Gibbons delivers the scoop on ice cream history, ingredients, innovations, and the mechanics of its small- and large-scale production. Labels, captions, and occasional cross-sectional images (a hand-cranked ice cream maker, a giant mixing vat) pack the artwork with as much information as the text itself. A step-by-step tour of an ice cream factory occupies the bulk of the book and will probably interest readers the most, even if Gibbons' honest reporting about the manufacturing process (such as the inclusion of stabilizers and emulsifiers) takes some of the romance out of her subject matter. Trivia concludes (More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any day of the week), along with the caveat DON'T EAT TOO MUCH! well-intentioned but probably ineffectual warning in a book that pretty much guarantees instant cravings for a fudge-drenched sundae. 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.

First documenting the history of ice cream, this simple text goes on to describe the ice-cream making process, including milking the cows, mixing the ingredients, pasteurization, homogenization, cooling, flavoring ("chocolate ice cream is the second favorite flavor"), and packaging. One to five sentences per page, plus labels and captions, are paired with cheerful illustrations often broken into panels to show details.

At long last, the prolific Gibbons weighs in with a characteristic treatment of this ever-popular topic. She opens with the supposed invention of iced milk 3,000 years ago and closes by warning readers not to eat too much of the stuff (the nearest thing to any cautionary or nutritional information here). In between, she takes a visiting class from dairy farm to modern factory, with side jaunts to hand-cranked ice cream, an ice cream social and the invention of the cone. The prose is, as always, relentlessly matter-of-fact, the cartoon illustrations both colorful and easy to follow. Though even smaller libraries will be able to dish up similar titles by others, Gibbons's fan base will guarantee this one's popularity. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)

PreS-Gr 3-Ice cream is easy to love, but it has not always been easy to make. Like spaghetti, its origins date back to Marco Polo and his famous trip to China. Gibbons explains how this favorite food developed from flavored ice to the creamy dessert we know today, describes the invention and workings of the ice-cream maker, follows the journey from cow to factory to grocery-store shelves, and mentions the innovative creation of the cone. All of these details combine to pay homage to what is arguably the most popular treat on the planet. The narrative is simple and direct and the cartoon illustrations are colorful and cheerful. Potentially unfamiliar vocabulary is defined within the text or on the same page, and all diagrams are clearly labeled. There is a lot going on in this book, but the layout guides readers through the wealth of information.-Kara Schaff Dean, Needham Public Library, MA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.