Bayonne, N.J.’s very own miscreant polar bears are in danger of violating their parole—again. While amiably cheating one another at cards one evening, Irving and Muktuk are paid a visit by their pal Larry. The three polar bears raise their usual ruckus, but the zoo is a forgiving place when it comes to polar bears who wish to play indoor volleyball. The trouble starts when Irving and Muktuk decide to do some visiting of their own—an idea alien to them before Larry’s sojourn, probably because it doesn’t typically involve crimes and misdemeanors. In their case it does; leaving the zoo’s precincts is strictly forbidden them. Oblivious to the fact that one usually knows the people one is visiting, they drop in on the Beachball residence for a little merriment. (For humans, they are cool customers when two polar bears come calling.) Fun is fun, but the Beachballs quietly call the cops. The Pinkwaters bring a cockamamie sense of humor, deadpan text and lovely pools of ribbon-candy color to the bears’ shenanigans, and there is little danger, considering what doofuses Irving and Muktuk are, that they will inspire any bad-bear behavior in readers. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 9, 2007
ISBN: 0-618-43126-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2007
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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