Reviews: (by author)

(3 Reviews)

Pinkwater, Daniel. Bad Bears Go Visiting. Illus. Jill Pinkwater. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

Pinkwater is the master of deadpan humor. In this new adventure for those sly but uncouth polar bears Irving and Muktuk, a visit from their pal Larry (also a polar bear) leads to misunderstandings. The duo decides they should go visiting as well. At random, they pick the Beachballs’ house. Chaos follows, by way of a snack hospitably provided (doughnuts with sardines), a game of volleyball, a spectacular police bust, and a return of the bears to the zoo. Irving and Muktuk have imitated Larry’s good manners when he came to visit them; it just doesn’t work out the same way. They have misbehaved again.

Jill Pinkwater’s hilarious art is inextricable from her husband’s prose. She uses flat, soft, vibrant colors and lovely designs—and then there are her Irving and Muktuk. On the page I’m looking at, they are arm in arm in the Beachballs’ house, amid the tumbled vases and titled bookshelves, looking outside the window as the police car lights approach, sparkling like fireworks. Irving and Muktuk are having a very good time. And so, of course, is the reader.

Other books in the newly-named “Irving and Muktuk Story” series are Irving and Muktuk: Two Bad Bears, Bad Bears and a Bunny, and Bad Bear Detectives.

A. Allison, June 2007

Pinkwater, Daniel. Dancing Larry. Illus. Jill Pinkwater. Tarrytown NY : Marshall Cavendish, 2006. ISBN 0-7614-5220-6. $16.95.

Daniel Pinkwater is a national treasure, having produced hilarious books for decades now. His polar bear whimsies began several years ago with Irving and Muktuk, two delightfully bad bears who are unhinged by blueberry muffins, and the somehow related Larry, who also lives in Bayonne NJ . Larry, protagonist of this book, catches the feeling of "expressing himself through motion" from his young friend, ballet student Mildred Frobisher. His polar bear friends at the zoo catch the expressive imperative from him, and soon they are performing publicly in "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." In a very productive partnership with the writing, the art by Jill Pinkwater is inseparable from the story. Her bears are supple, sly, and quite talented. Four other Larry books are available.

A. Allison, June 2006

Pinkwater, Daniel. Bad Bears in the Big City. Illus. Jill Pinkwater. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. $16. ISBN 0-618-25208-8.

Irving and Muktuk, two charmingly bad polar bears with an incorrigible penchant for blueberry muffins, are relocated to the Bayonne, New Jersey Zoo. The zoo is next door to a muffin factory. The resident bear, Roy, actually has his own apartment away from the zoo, since he can be trusted not to eat people. But what about Irving and Muktuk? Can they be trusted not to eat people if they are given off-zoo privileges? And what about the muffin factory?

The prose is droll, matter-of-fact. The illustrations are equally droll, and notable for their use of color and design. The Pinkwaters are two bad artists….

A. Allison Fall ‘04

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