MISSION DEFROSTABLE

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast become action-adventure stars recruited to track down the villain who has frozen the fridge.

In this third installment, a killer frost has blanketed the fridge foodscape. A tall stranger, Agent Asparagus, comes to town, wielding a Fridge Bureau of Investigation badge, and enlists the aid of the two breakfast royals to find the culprit. Readers are quickly thrown into the arctic action, with kidnappings, a trek into enemy territory, double-crossings, and revenge. Pancake and French Toast seem doomed when a surprising new hero swings to the rescue. Whereas previous installments reveled in the magical refrigerator landscape, Kearney’s illustrations focus here on the animated range of emotions on pastry and Popsicles. Angry bananas? Check. Screaming fruit bars? Legions. The syncopated and clever rhyming couplets keep the pace moving at a neat clip. The vibrant characters are drawn with pencil, digitally colorized, and placed over a muted background, which causes the action to pop. Kindness, a recurring message in this series, returns in a teachable moment, with a confession and an apology breaking the ice. Sometimes a cold shoulder may be a cry for friendship. At the end, a vertical gatefold reveals a delightful wintry wonderland where edible friends and former foes play in the snow.

With frostbitten friends and witty word sets, this is a freezerful of fun.