Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving & Muktuk Story (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It is the midnight flight from Yellowtooth in the far frozen North..." (more)
Key Phrases: muffin factory, Head Zookeeper, Zoo Director

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 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
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

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, New Jersey, 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 and Jill 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 © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (March 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618252088
• ISBN-13: 978-0618252084
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #954,273 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bearly Concealed Fun, October 19, 2006

By	M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

We last encountered Irving and Muktuk, two larcenous polar bears, stealing blueberry muffins ("lots of muffins," Muktuk reminds us) from the frozen North town of Yellowtooth. The bearly concealing costumes did not fool Officer Bunny, and he deported them to the Bayonne, New Jersey zoo. This book opens with the bears on a Bayonne-bound plane, bearing a note from Officer Bunny warning the Zoo Director that they cannot be trusted! The two Pinkwaters depict the zoo as a kind of maximally minimum-security prison. As in a vintage prison film, the longtime resident, polar bear Roy, gives them a few pointers on zoo life. This includes showing the new "convicts" his stashes of muffins, fish cakes, his own private apartment with "a freezer, four air conditioners, and two electric fans,' and teaching them the easiest ways to perform their zoo duties--just swim around, and occasionally wave to people.

The bears are babes in the city, not even realizing that bears can eat people until Roy warns them against it. "You can eat people?" "Don't even think about it," says Roy. Pinkwater's short sentences, while appropriate for his audience, have an additional function: They support his ironic, deadpan delivery of some truly bizarre, suspicious, and/or illegal bear behavior. However, Pinkwater also varies sentence and phrase length for comic effect.

Irving and Muktuk spend the evening playing cards and making plans for breaking into the muffin factory. The next morning, the bears sneak out of the zoo (in the book's only confusing line, they escape by inserting playing cards into "a slot under the big clock") and--wearing makeshift disguises that would fool no one--they join a school group touring the muffin factory. Irving and Muktuk are beside themselves when they hear of the free samples, and they work themselves into feeding frenzy that leaves the two polar bears uncomfortably hot. In a deft plot turn, Pinkwater's bears decide to chill by laying on frozen pea bags at a local grocery store! Roy finds them and calls the zoo authorities. Now, Irving and Muktuk are afraid of retribution, a fate worse than their easy job at the zoo, and they beg Roy for help. In a move worthy of Perry Mason, Roy comes up with the "no people were eaten" defense, and the two errant bears are given a second chance, only if they promise to continue to not eat people (this one's easy for them), AND if they promise not to raid the muffin factory again (this one's almost impossible). The bears vaguely agree to the last requirement, but on the last page, Jill Pinkwater draws a wonderful picture of the bears looking slyly, conspiratorially at each other, as if they only they know that stolen muffins will be a big part of their future.

"Bad Bears in the Big City" contains the magnificent dry wit associated with the Pinkwater's bear books, embedded within an incredible yarn that's played straight--as if Pinkwater is merely reporting the facts. Jill Pinkwater's very expressive illustrations, capture the bear's alternating bravado and insecurities, emotions that youngsters can easily identify with. Most of all, the bears' woefully inept plans, their naiveté, and those "no one is looking" sly looks will elicit squeals of delight from your young den of cubs. The next book in the series, "Bad Bears and a Bunny" is a delightfully role reversal farce. In early August of this year, the Pinkwaters released their latest Irving and Muktuk concoction, "Bad Bear Detectives." I'd also recommend looking at the great "Bongo Larry" and "At the Hotel Larry." Larry is a bear who happens to like blueberry muffins...