FOOD FIGHT!

Upstairs, the people of the house are sleeping; downstairs, the residents of the refrigerator are ready to party hearty in this pun-tastical midnight ramble. “ ‘Lettuce have a party!’ ” say the salad greens and everyone cuts loose: “the almonds acted nutty, the pretzels did a twist, the Swiss cheese yodeled when the chocolate kissed . . . ” But things quickly get out of hand, and soon the hot dogs are barking, the noodles are calling the soup “Chicken,” and all are roaring, “FOOD FIGHT! FOOD FIGHT! IT’S A FOOD FIGHT! WE’RE GONNA MIX IT UP AND FIGHT ALL NIGHT!” Displaying an amazing facility with modeling clay, Gay-Kassel puts tiny but expressive faces on realistically detailed, brightly colored edibles, which are then strewn—as are streaming lines of text—with gay abandon across vividly tinted backgrounds. Eventually the hullabaloo brings out a corps of stern-faced spuds who organize a clean-up detail, just in time for morning. It’s the biggest, freshest, and funniest array of groceries since Freymann & Elffers’s How Are You Peeling? (1999). (Picture book. 6-8)