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Summary
Summary
Irving and Muktuk have arrived from Yellowtooth in the frozen North to their new home in the Bayonne, New Jersey, Zoo. There they meet another polar bear, Roy, who tells them about his life outside the zoo. Roy goes home every night at six when the zoo closes. After a week of swimming, eating fish and the occasional muffin thrown to them by zoo visitors, playing, and taking naps, Irving and Muktuk feel bored and restless. They decide to explore life outside the walls and go in search of Roy and more muffins. Soon their escape is discovered and the zookeepers, the zoo director, and the police are called.
Are these polar bears to be trusted?
Author Notes
Author, illustrator, and radio commentator Daniel M. Pinkwater was born in Memphis Tennessee on November 15, 1941. He is trained as an artist and attended Bard College. In 1969, he wrote and illustrated his first book, The Terrible Roar. Since then he has written over 50 books for children, young adults, and adults. He is also a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and regularly reviews children's books on Weekend Edition Saturday. While he has illustrated many of his works, his most recent ones have been illustrated by his wife Jill Pinkwater.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-In this zany sequel to the Pinkwaters' Irving and Muktuk: Two Bad Bears (Houghton, 2001), the incorrigible, muffin-loving polar bears are sent to a zoo in Bayonne, NJ, along with a letter stating that they are not to be trusted. Craving their favorite food, they make plans to break into the muffin factory next door. Using their pillows and blankets to make an ingenious disguise, they sneak into the building with a school tour group. When they are discovered, they run and hide in the freezer section of a local supermarket. Roy, a better-behaved polar bear, finds them and returns them to the zoo. This book mentions but does not explain the pair's muffin-stealing past and will make the most sense to readers who are familiar with its predecessor. The lighthearted cartoons reflect the mood of the humorous text. The pure white bears drawn with thin, free black outlines contrast with the backgrounds, which are often illustrated with bright complementary colors. Pinkwater's many fans will enjoy the further adventures of these mischievous creatures.-Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving and Muktuk Story by Daniel Pinkwater, illus. by Jill Pinkwater, finds the muffin-thieving polar bears sent in shackles from their home in Yellowtooth to the Bayonne, N.J., zoo. A note from Yellowtooth's Officer Bunny ("We hope you enjoy our bears. Remember, they are not to be trusted!") ensures that the bears are confined to the zoo, but the muffin factory next door provides too great a temptation. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In the latest Irving and Muktuk installment, the muffin-loving polar bears are shipped to the Bayonne, New Jersey, zoo with a note that they aren't to be trusted. In this droll but unfocused story, the bears sneak off to visit a polar bear who leaves the zoo each night for his own apartment. The ink and felt-tip illustrations are agreeable if repetitive. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Welcome back the Pinkwaters' Irving and Muktuk, two mischief-making polar bears with a muffin fixation. Here they're sent, in chains, to a zoo in New Jersey that happens to be adjacent to a muffin factory (karmic coincidence). Their mate in the zoo is Roy, a time-clock-punching polar bear with his own apartment. Irving and Muktuk, with their muffin-absconding rap sheet, aren't afforded such latitude. Not to mention, notes Roy, "they are afraid you might eat people." As if struck by lightning, they ask, "You can eat people?" Roy replies, "Don't even think about it." Loose cannons, Irving and Muktuk stage a zoo-break, joining a tour of the muffin factory to satisfy their craving. They're nabbed when found sleeping in the frozen-pea section of a nearby supermarket. The spare line drawings perfectly capture these strange, gratifying bears--two ursines who are always a step west of our expectations. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
K-Gr. 3. Irving and Muktuk, the nefarious polar bears last seen in Two Bad Bears (2001), have been sent to a zoo in Bayonne, Newersey, as punishment for transgressions in their Alaskan town. At the zoo, they meet the resident polar bear, Roy, who has his own apartment and clocks out of the zoo every night after it closes. Since they aren't to be trusted, Irving and Muktuk have to stay in their apartment in the zoo, but they soon grow bored and escape, disguised as rakishly capped figures. Their objective is the nearby muffin factory (muffins are a passion), but they are discovered and forced back to the zoo. It is unlikely, however, given the looks on their faces on the final page, that they are on the way to muffin rehabilitation. The droll, understated text andill Pinkwater's simple, expressive, marker-and-ink illustrations perfectly capture the cheekiness of this story of bears gone bad and proud of it. --Todd Morning Copyright 2004 Booklist