Footprints in the Butter

This is the second book about Chilly Billy, a little man who lives in a fridge with his friend Chilly Lily. It would be a help to have read the first one since there is no attempt to scene set or to introduce the characters in this book. Chilly Billy finds footprints in the butter and sets out to discover who they belong to. It turns out to be a ladybird who was put into the fridge on a carrot and then froze solid. The rest of the story concerns Billy's attempts with the help of the 'Thaw Brigade' to free the ladybird. It's a long story with a lot of reading and a relentlessly jokey style that I found hard to take. I also thought it a pity that no attempt was made to think out the logic of the situation. The idea of a sort of sub-culture going on in the fridge is interesting but instead of building on this and creating something which works within its own rules and logic, the plot relies on unlikely events such as a fridge being cold enough to coat a ladybird with ice several centimetres thick but still leaving butter soft enough to show footprints! Not really to my taste at all but, in fairness, the children did enjoy it the first time it was read and several read it for themselves. No one so far has read it twice.