Flip! How the Frisbee Took Flight

Where do new ideas come from?
No one knows exactly who created the flying disc. Was it cavekids who flung round rocks? Ancient Greeks who threw the first discus? 1920s New England college students who flew empty pie plates made by a baker named Frisbie? Or was it high school football player Fred Morrison, who started tossing the lids of popcorn tins in 1937? One thing is certain: Fred Morrison became entranced with the idea of a flying disc and was convinced that it could succeed. Zippy, well-paced text teeming with consonance and energetic, engaging retro-style illustrations trace Morrison’s development of the toy. After pursuing several prototypes, bouncing back from failure, partnering with his wife, and blending the idea with the space craze of the late ’40s and ’50s, Morrison was eventually able to sell his design—called the Pluto Platter—to Wham-O, a toy company that learned of the pie plates in New England, tweaked the name, and began to distribute the Frisbee we know today. A great choice for illustrating social-emotional skills, particularly resilience, as well as steps of the STEM process, this lighthearted, entertaining selection is full of kid appeal and is sure to provide inspiration and encourage inventive thinking. Period illustrations feature an all-White cast, with people of color appearing in a contemporary park scene.
An appealing true tale of innovation and perseverance.
—Kirkus Reviews


Stories of inventions usually have a single starting point. But when it comes to the origin of the flying disc, more than one individual has a claim. Muirhead’s text provides a few possible answers but focuses on the one individual with enough entrepreneurial gumption to create the product seen flying through the air at beaches and parks today. In 1937, California high schooler Fred Morrison happened to be tossing a flat popcorn lid with his girlfriend. Something about the way the lid flew grabbed hold of Morrison, and soon the lid was replaced by a better-flying cake pan. Muirhead describes the many iterations of Morrison’s invention, from five-cent cake pans sold at the beach for a quarter to specially designed and molded plastics that led to the durable Frisbee we know today. Gustavson’s gouache illustrations (a bit static-looking for capturing the excitement of a disc’s gliding flight) allude to Norman Rockwell’s Americana style while efffectively situating readers in pre- and post-World War II settings. An author’s note and sources are appended. Fans of Barton and Tate’s Whoosh! and McCarthy’s Earmuffs for Everyone! will flip for this unique invention tale.
—The Horn Book