Bad Bears go Visiting

April 1, 2007
Two wild and crazy polar bears, Irving and Muktuk, are back in their fourth adventure. Theyre cheating at cards when their friend Larry arrives for a visit carrying a fish-decorated cake. They play volleyball, chat, and agree that visits are nice. The next evening, the bears escape from the zoo so that they, too, can pay a visit. They pick out a nice house but lack a present. No problemthey pull up a bush from out front and present it to the Beachball family. After an inside volleyball game wreaks havoc, daughter Sylvia calls the police, who cart Irving and Muktuk back to the zoo, where they conclude that its nice to have a visit and its nice to make a visit. The Pinkwaters droll humor continues to mark the adventures of these lovable, silly bears. Felt-tip-and-ink illustrations outline the white bears with squiggly lines against colorful backgrounds. Bad but funny.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2007
When bad bears Irving and Muktuk sneak out of the zoo ("Though polar bears are very large, they are among the best sneakers in the animal kingdom"), they're inspired by a visit they've had from pal Larry and decide to go visiting themselves. Their victims are the Beachball family, happily watching the weightlifting championships on TV, their slipper-encased feet propped up on the coffee table, when the doorbell rings. While no one in the Pinkwaters' tongue-in-cheek universe seems to think it odd that polar bears might be at the front door, the Beachballs are nevertheless sufficiently taken aback to suggest that little Sylvia "make a telephone call" while she is in the kitchen preparing doughnuts with sardines for their guests. In fairly short order, the police are there, demanding that Irving and Muktuk come out with their paws up, "as usual." Jill Pinkwater's illustrations deftly provide the subtext to the text, revealing unhappy frowns as the Beachballs look at their uprooted shrubs and wrecked furniture, even as the present-tense narration continues on in deadpan. Taken all together, the Irving and Muktuk books are a refreshing antidote to the pervasive sweetness of so much of children's literature.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)