Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast: Mission Defrostable by Josh Funk and Brendan Kearney (Children's Week #7)

Deep in the gloomiest nook of the fridge,

past Veggie Valley and Rosemary Ridge,

meeting in secret behind Pickle Post, 

sat Lady Pancake beside Sir French Toast.

"Surely you've noticed a chill in the air,"

said Pancake, "I'm freezing! There's frost in my hair!"

Something has gone wrong in the fridge. Instead of chilling things to the usual temperature, everything is getting frosty and frozen, like the fridge temperature has been turned to freezer level. What's going on? Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are mulling the problem when a detective (who also happens to be a spear of asparagus) shows up. They head toward the freezer to figure out the problem, but then the detective suddenly disappears. Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast need help. So, they turn to their rival, Baron von Waffle. Waffle knows the freezer well and can keep them from becoming lost.

The trio makes its way to the heart of the freezer, but Pancake and French Toast are seized by a bunch of popsicles and shackled with curly fry chains. They're taken to see the empress, who tells them her story of horror and revenge. But, then Baron von Waffle swoops in to save the day. The empress is impressed by the touching scene of friendship and agrees to unfreeze the fridge. All return to the fridge, heroes who have saved the day.

Highly recommended - I love this entire series. It's cute, silly, adventurous, and I love, love, love the illustrations, in which fridge and freezer contents are made to look like landscapes. There's always a fold-out illustration, as well, so careful to save this one for children who are past the page-tearing stage (click on image to enlarge).

My reviews of the first two in the series:

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast by Funk and Kearney 
Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast: The Case of the Stinky Stench by Funk and Kearney

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast: The Case of the Stinky Stench by Josh Funk and Brendan Kearney

Back in the kitchen and deep in the fridge,
past Trifle Tower, across Taco Bridge,
on a vacation at Mashmallow Coast,
sat Lady Pancake beside Sir French Toast.


Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast: The Case of the Stinky Stench takes the characters from Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast on a new adventure inside the fridge. This time, there is a strange smell in the refrigerator. Inspector Croissant, Sir French Toast's nephew, is on the job. But, he needs help and Toast is willing do try. Croissant has interrupted Pancake and Toast's vacation but they're a team, now, so they both join Croissant on the search.

First, they decide to check the lair of their nemesis, Baron von Waffle, who lives in the Onion Ring Cave. They cross Salsa Ravine and traipse around Mount Everbean to arrive at his home. Von Waffle is not happy to see them. But, he is clearly innocent. His home smells delicious and nobody can dispute it. Outside, the smell is growing worse. After crossing Applesauce River, they hear a rumor about a stinky red fish in the bottom of Corn Chowder Lake. It turns out to be . . . a red herring. And, yes, it smells fine. The puns are definitely one of my favorite things about this book. As they prepare to check out the lake made of corn chowder:

"Great!" said Croissant as he tripped by Miss Steak. 

Finally, they draw close to the bad smell and discover its origin is a fruitcake that's molded. But fruitcakes last forever! Surely there's a solution. The fruitcake tells the story of his downfall but Croissant says, "This is no villain. Let's help him. Make way!" And, off they go to find a place where the fruitcake can get a shower and shave.

Now that fruitcake has been cleaned up, the day is saved, the case solved. The contents of the refrigerator have a party with music by Spuddy Holly and the Croquettes. And as in its predecessor, Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast, the book ends with a fold-out page with a view of the contents of the refrigerator, which is quite different from the layout in the first book.

Highly recommended - Just like the first book, the colorful and creative fridge interior made me smile. I also found myself studying the geography - the Marshmallow Coast (which appears to be on the edge of a chocolate river), the bridge given its contours by bottles of maple syrup and tacos, the Salsa Ravine with chips wedged into its edges. I adored the use of puns, too. You're never too young to learn about clever wording. Because the food is animated, it's especially appreciated that the rotten item was salvageable. And, I love the full view of the refrigerator interior - a map on which one can trace the journey. So. Much. Fun.

©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast by Josh Funk and Brendan Kearney

In Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast, the title characters live "Deep in the fridge and behind the green peas, way past the tofu and left of the cheese." They're good friends. But, when Miss Brie brings the news that there's only a single drop of syrup remaining in the bottle, they both announce their desire for the last drop. And, the race is on.

Through Broccoli Forest, past Orange Juice Fountain,
they climbed to the top of Potato Mash Mountain.

Pushing and shoving they fought for the lead,
Toast behind Pancake, who rolled at high speed.

As they race through the fridge, each has plenty of mishaps. Sir French Toast falls in an open pot of jam and takes an unfortunately ill-conceived ski leap off of Sauerkraut Peak, landing him below his destination. Lady Pancake gets stuck in Chili Lagoon and causes an avalanche of beans, even after being warned to change directions by a chickpea. 

But, finally they arrive, "battered and soggy, exhausted and crumbling," beside the bottle of syrup. And, it's empty. While they were racing each other, Baron von Waffle managed to sneak over to the bottle, first. He enjoyed that last drop. 

With one evil laugh, Waffle slipped out of sight. 
The syrup was gone. No more reason to fight.

Trudging back home beneath layers of grime,
Toast said, "Perhaps we should not fight next time."

Always a welcome lesson, that joining forces is better than fighting, Pancake and Toast begin their pact by immediately agreeing to share a pat of butter. 

Highly recommended - Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast is another one of my new favorites. I've fortunately gotten to read a lot of great children's books lately. The illustrations are pure delight. I've read the book several times and I find myself smiling all the way through. I particularly love the creative way food is used to make forests and mountains, a fountain, a lagoon . . . even a parachute fashioned from a lettuce leaf. At the end of the book, there's a fold-down page that shows the entire refrigerator interior, so you can see how when Sir French Toast fell way too far after vaulting off Sauerkraut Peak he landed in the vegetable crisper. Ridiculously fun.

©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.