The Boy Who Invented the Popsicle: The Cool Science Behind Frank Epperson’s Famous Frozen Treat

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that foodstuffs don’t just magically appear – they have to be invented. In The Boy Who Invented the Popsicle, Renaud doesn’t just tell the story of how this cold treat came to be, but she also offers readers four opportunities to conduct experiments that connect with problems that Frank Epperson had to solve in creating what we know today as the Popsicle.

Even as a child, Frank Epperson knew he wanted to be an inventor when he grew up. Renaud references Frank’s inquisitive mind and his constant experimenting. At age 10, Frank developed a handcar with two handles that was speedier than one-handled handcars. As the excerpt above indicates, Frank’s real passion was creating flavored soda waters that he shared with his friends. On one unusually cold 1905 night in San Francisco, California, when the temperature fell below freezing, Frank, then 11, decided to leave a glass of flavored soda water outside to see how it might taste in a frozen state. The result? A frozen drink on a stick! But Frank was a child, and his “discovery” remained untapped until he became an adult and married. Observing that many people were eating chocolate-covered ice-cream bars, Frank, now the father of five children, wondered, “Could I make money with my frozen drink invention? What if I used fruit juices?” Renaud then goes on to identify the challenges that Frank had to overcome in perfecting his Ep-sicle and being able to produce the treat in large quantities and then marketing it. The product’s name change was evidently due to his children’s asking, “Pop, can we have a ‘sicle?”

As previously noted, Renaud included four science activities that connect with the story of the Popsicle’s creation. In the first, children experiment with liquids of different densities. In the second, they can make their own lemon-flavored soda water. Showing that salt lowers the freezing point of water is the focus of the third activity, and “mak[ing] your own frozen treat in only five minutes” is called for in the final one. Each of the activities presents a “Stuff you need” list, provides clear step-by-step “What to do” instructions, and explains what occurred via a “What happened?’ section. Three of the activities also include a “One more thing” note which suggests an extension to the main activity. For example, in the “Why Won’t They Play Together?” undertaking which saw children mixing water and cooking oil together, the “One more thing” text suggests: “Food coloring is made of water. See what happens when you add a few drops of food coloring to the glass. The drops will slowly travel through the oil and only mix with the water.”

Back matter includes a page labelled “Author’s Note” as well as a facing page containing four black and white photos featuring Frank Epperson and a colour photo of a vintage Popsicle advertisement. The “Author’s Note” contains information not found in the main text, including the facts that “In 1924, Frank finally applied for patents for his ‘frozen confectionary’ and his ‘confectionary-making apparatus.’ Eventually, he sold his rights to the Popsicle for $50 000 to pay off some debts and help his family through financial hardship.” That “eventually” was actually 1925. Because the cited selling amount of $50,000.00 likely seems somewhat paltry today, Renaud really needed to add the explanatory statement that $50,000.00 in 1925 would have been equivalent in purchasing power to more than $700,000.00 in 2019.

Because Popsicles are a fun treat, Milan Pavlović’s lively cartoon-style illustrations that include occasional speech bubbles are the ideal text complement. The contents and activities in The Boy Who Invented the Popsicle will certainly engage young readers who may be motivated to research how other “foods” came into being or perhaps to even begin their own experimentation.