VICTOR VITO AND FREDDIE VASCO
by Laurie Berkner & illustrated by Henry Cole
A food-themed children’s song recorded by Berkner is served up as the story’s text in this saga of two traveling polar bears, Victor and Freddie. They own a café in Alaska, and when their customers become bored with the menu’s single offering of salmon, the bear pair sets off to expand their culinary horizons on a cross-country road trip. They eat burritos in New Mexico, rutabagas and collard greens in Louisiana, and spaghetti in New York City, all the while sending postcards back home to the Klondike Café. Cole’s costumed animals are full of delightful expression, particularly his seal waitresses in their perky pink uniforms and ’50s-style specs. The song lyrics are augmented with an opening letter explaining the upcoming journey and with a device of newspaper-style headlines in the upper page corners to indicate a change in location. The repetitive and rhythmic song lyrics serve as predictable text, but the words really need to be sung to enjoy the work to its fullest flavor. (The music is included.) (Picture book. 4-8)