Synopses & Reviews
Before refrigeration was invented, most people could not store certain kinds of foods for more than a few days. And, in the summertime, chilled milk and cold drinks were rare. But in the winter there was ice frozen in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Starting in the 1830s, people began to harvest ice, store it in ways that limited melting, and transport it to homes and businesses. Eventually, every home, restaurant, and tavern had an ice box, and a huge, vital ice business grew. Author Laurence Pringle describes the key inventions and ideas that helped the ice business flourish. He discusses northern areas of the East and Midwest that were sources of ice and gives details of ice harvesting and storage by focusing on one lake--Rockland Lake, "the ice box of New York City." And he writes of those vital but sometimes controversial workers who delivered the ice to customers. Larry Pringle worked closely with experts and relied on primary documents, including archival photographs, postcards, prints, and drawings.
Review
". . . tells a kid-friendly slice of social and technological history. Aided by an impressive collection of archival photos and advertisements, Pringle has a good eye for side stories..." -- USA Today
Review
". . . Pleasingly designed with short blocks of crisp text and ample illustrations consisting of archival photographs, drawings, and images of the ice cards customers used to communicate their needs to the deliverymen. Readers will be enticed." -- Booklist
Synopsis
Think of a world without cold drinks, ice cream, and frozen foods. Believe it or not, such a world DID exist Learn all about this fascinating history in this nonfiction book. In the early 1800s, people began to harvest ice, store it in ways that limited melting, and transport it to homes and businesses. Eventually, almost everyone had an icebox, and a huge, vital ice business grew. In this riveting book, acclaimed writer Laurence Pringle describes the key inventions and ideas that helped the ice business flourish. He points to the many sources of ice throughout the East and Midwest and spotlights Rockland Lake, the icebox of New York City, to offer a close-up look at the ice business in action. Pringle worked closely with experts and relied on primary documents, including archival photographs, postcards, prints, and drawings, to capture the times when everyone waited for the ice man and his wagon to deliver those precious blocks of ice.
Synopsis
In the early 1800s, people began to harvest ice, store it in ways that limited melting, and transport it to homes and businesses. Eventually, almost everyone had an icebox, and a huge, vital ice business grew. In this riveting book, acclaimed writer Laurence Pringle describes the key inventions and ideas that helped the ice business flourish. He points to the many sources of ice throughout the East and Midwest and spotlights Rockland Lake, the icebox of New York City,” to offer a close-up look at the ice business in action. Pringle worked closely with experts and relied on primary documents, including archival photographs, postcards, prints, and drawings, to capture the times when everyone waited for the ice man and his wagon to deliver those precious blocks of ice.
About the Author
Laurence Pringle has written 108 books for young readers, many of them award-winning science titles. He is the recipient of three major awards for his body of work-the Eva L. Gordon Award for Children's Science Literature, the Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in West Nyack, New York-a few miles from Rockland Lake, once "the ice box of New York City."