Dr. Welch and the Great Grape Story [Hardcover]

Mary Lou Carney (Author), Sherry Meidell (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3-For generations, youngsters have been slurping up their grape juice, savoring the flavor and admiring their purple tongues and lilac mustaches. Most of them will be unaware of the trials and tribulations that Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch faced when he decided to develop a nonalcoholic grape beverage to serve in place of communion wine. Carney's simple text and Meidell's peppy watercolors present the whole experience, from the bud of an idea in 1869 to the first successful batch, and, in an extensive author's note, to the multimillion-dollar industry that exists today. And all this is the product of a wine-hating dentist who wished to do good by creating a "Juice sweet enough for a baby to drink. Harmless to every soul on God's earth!" (including alcoholics-"people so affected by fermented drink that even one tiny sip-even communion wine-could make them crave more and more"). A story to be enjoyed while sipping cool grape juice and crunching up some PBJ crackers.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 1-3. This picture-book biography presents the story of Thomas Bramwell Welch and his quest to produce a nonfermented grape juice. Dr. Welch, a nineteenth-century dentist and moonlighting inventor, was concerned that alcoholics couldn't partake of "The Lord's Supper," so he set about finding a solution. Carney's sprightly text and Meidell's stylized watercolors lead readers through Welch's process, from his adaptation of Pasteur's experiments with yeast and heat to the moment the Welch family samples the resulting juice, "sweet enough for a baby to drink." A thorough endnote wraps up the loose ends, noting that the "purpleicious beverage" was not instantly embraced by either churches or the public. The offhand reference to alcoholism in a book for this age group is slightly awkward, and the narrative seems to assume a Christian readership. Still, young readers of many faiths will enjoy discovering how a popular beverage came to be. Jennifer Locke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Boyds Mills Press; 1St Edition edition (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590780396
• ISBN-13: 978-1590780398
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,243,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE GREAT GRAPE DOCTOR, April 21, 2005

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dr. Welch and the Great Grape Story (Hardcover)

How often do you suppose folks simply say, "Please pass the Welch's" rather than asking for the jam, jelly or juice? Frequently, I'd suppose because the Welch products have become so much a part of our culture, very much like "Kleenex" or "Coke." Surely in 1869 Thomas Bramwell Welch had no idea that some day a company bearing his name would be the world's leading producer of grape products.

Mary Lou Carney focuses on a small part of the good doctor's life - specifically when he began to think that grapes could be used to make a sweet drink. After all, he reasoned, grapes were used to make wine, why not a soft drink?

It took a bit of experimentation and a lot of work, but he was right. His story is told in highly readable fashion, and accompanied by charming period watercolor illustrations.

- Gail Cooke

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a grape story!, November 12, 2005

By 

Gwynne C. Spencer (Mancos, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dr. Welch and the Great Grape Story (Hardcover)

It never would have occurred to me that grape juice had not always been available since wine has been around since Noah, but this story tells the quest for Dr. Welch's grape drink that most of us take for granted. You'll never endure another commercial by Larry King (for Welch's Grape Juice) without thinking of this book! It would be an interesting classroom introduction to researching where various products we now take for granted actually originated; kids in middle school might even be inclined to write their own picture books and illustrate them as part of a learning unit.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine picturebook biography written for young readers, June 14, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dr. Welch and the Great Grape Story (Hardcover)

Sherry Meidell provides realistic and fun drawings to accompany an unusual biographical topic: the story of Dr. Welch's invention of the grape drink. His idea for a new, non-alcoholic sweet drink was to create an industry and his times and life receive colorful embellishment in a fine picturebook biography written specifically for young readers.