The Pickle in Grandma’s Fridge

Annie is apparently having a sleepover at her grandmother’s house, and her answer to Grandma’s question posed in the above excerpt is: “[I]f you leave food in the fridge for too long, it will grow legs.” Grandma rejects the response as being “silly” and suggests that Annie go and check the fridge for an after school snack. There, among the shelves containing the apples, strawberries and grapes Annie likes, she also spots “one very fuzzy pickle”. Annie, realizing that this particular pickle has been in her grandmother’s fridge for at least three weeks, tells her grandmother that “You should throw out it [sic] ... Before it grows legs.” Again, Grandma dismisses the idea of the pickle’s growing legs as being “silly” and “impossible”.

That night, when both Annie and her grandmother are in bed, Annie hears a tapping sound that she traces to the fridge. Through the fridge’s door, Annie can hear a tiny voice saying, “Can you please let me out!” Annie opens the fridge door and out jumps a fuzzy green pickle, one having both legs and arms. Dilbert P. Ickle, as he identifies himself, runs off through the cat flap but not before saying he’s tired of living in the cold refrigerator and is, therefore, relocating to warmer climes.

Somehow, Grandma’s sleep has been disturbed, and she enters the kitchen where she finds Annie. When Annie claims she’s up because she was hungry, Grandma offers to make them both a midnight snack, but, when Grandma goes to add the pickle to her sandwich, she finds not only it missing but also a wedge of cheese. In the book’s last illustration, Tonia Laird provides a visual answer to the latter’s whereabouts by including a “limbed” cheese wedge that appears to be about to make its break for freedom.

Though The Pickle in Grandma’s Fridge is a somewhat cute story, it’s based on a thin premise, a classmate’s uncontested assertion, and, overall, the plot lacks tension. Laird’s illustrations do support the storyline, but her renderings of Dilbert P. Ickle called for greater emotional variety. The Pickle in Grandma’s Fridge is an acceptable read, but it is not a must-purchase title.