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Bad Bear Detectives: An Irving and Muktuk Story (Irving & Muktuk Story)

Daniel Manus Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

On the Waterfront 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Those Bayonne Bears are back, and there's not a safe muffin in all of New Jersey. "Bad Bear Detectives" is another delicious book in Daniel and Jill Pinkwater's hilarious "Irving and Muktuk" series, and it's one of their funniest. While Daniel Pinkwater specializes in combining the outrageous with the dryly understated (much as James Stevenson does in his stories about Grandpa and Wainey), `Detectives' has some of the funniest lines of all the "Bear" books, and Jill Pinkwater's colorful backgrounds and imaginatively drawn backdrops and bears (the latter are so uncomplicated and sheer white that they seem to leap off the page) engage the reader and convey the slyly innocent, but oh-so-guilty personalities of the muffin-obsessed bears.

When determined Police Captain Hare fingers Irving and Muktuk as the prime suspects in a heist of "expensive Italian designer muffins from the waterfront, the bears take a break from cheating at poker to proclaim their innocence:

"This is bad," Muktuk says, "Make one mistake and anytime a muffin is missing, the coppers are all over you."
It is unfair, "Irving says.
"Of course, we have made more than one mistake," Muktuk says.

Unfortunately, their history of muffin larceny (stretching from Alaska to the Bayonne muffin factory) is so well known that not even the zoo director sides with them, and even offers a punishment: "If it is proven that they took the muffins, they will be locked in their [apartment-like] room at night, and they will have to pick up trash around the zoo for a year."

However, the bears are so convinced of their innocence (or have a huge capacity for denial) that they resolve to "remove the smirch from their names," by stealing detective hats and finding the true culprit. "Isn't it a bad idea, where we are going to prove that we did not steal something, to start out by stealing hats?" Irving asks. In Pinkwater's usual deadpan style, Muktuk replies, "We have no choice...without hats, we would be spotted as polar bears in a second."

There's only one soft spot in the story, some good detective-bad detective interrogation of a watchman that doesn't quite fit, but two pages later Pinkwater returns to prime Irving and Muktuk form: "If you were a bear..." Muktuk says. "I am a bear," Irving says. IF you were a bear, and you took the muffins, what would you do next?" Muktuk asks. "I would eat them!" Muktuk says. With their working theory that bears must have stolen the muffins, Irving and Muktuk have inside knowledge of the muffins' location. They're so familiar with the loot that they pick up the smell of "mirtilli dell'italia, or blueberries of Italy, and--surprise!--the scent of bear! Still hanging onto their excuse that they're after some other muffin-loving bears, Irving and Muktuk lead us back to the Bayonne zoo ( ! ), where they find the muffins behind a waterfall next to the polar bear pool! They're slightly soggy, but good enough to finish off.

"So, it was us! We did take the muffins!" Muktuk says. "Because we are bad bears," Irving says. "Yes, we are, Muktuk says."

And this is a very excellent book. In the Pinkwaters' hands, the bears are clever symbols of young children, so egocentric and single-minded in their hedonistic pursuits that their heartfelt tale of innocence lasts right up to the muffin-eating conclusion. As they eat the last muffin morsels, they know that punishment will follow the crime, but their eyes seem to say that nothing will hold them for long--and nothing ever does. Good for them, and good for all of us, because there's nothing quite as delightful as the blueberry muffin-eating bears of Bayonne.

Editorial Review:

When a shipment of imported Italian muffins goes missing, Irving and Muktuk become the key suspects. Everyone knows their weakness for muffins and immediately think they are responsible!

Irving and Muktuk realize that in order to clear their smirched names, they have to find the culprit themselves. They disguise themselves, sniff out some clues, interview possible witnesses, and try to find the thief. As with all good mysteries, the clues lead to a surprise ending.

The Werewolf Club Meets the Hound of the Basketballs #4

Daniel Pinkwater

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Editorial Review:

What's small and round and smells like knackwurst, and is very, very scary?

The Werewolf Club is about to find out! After a stop at the Local Yokel Diner to eat jitterbugs (you don't want to know), the young werewolves are off to Basketball Hall, the ancestral home of their teacher Mr. Talbot's uncle, Hugo Basketball. Generations of Basketballs have been cursed by their servants, the peculiar Barrymores, (it's so hard to get good help) not to mention by monstrous Hound of the Basketballs.

Who better to vanquish the frightful hound, Hugo figures, than a pack of werewolves? So with the moon full (and their belies full of knackwurst and sauerkraut) our intrepid heroes are once again risking their young lives to rid the world of evil.

But what about the haunted pastrami?

The Werewolf Club Meets Dorkula #3

Daniel Pinkwater

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Editorial Review:

Just when you thought it was safe...

Here comes Dorkula. Who is he and what does he want? Is this the vampire of ancient legend and bad late-night movies?

Being in the Werewolf Club has never been so much fun! Just ask Ralf Alfa, Billy Furball, Lucy Fang, and Norman Gnormal. Follow their funny exploits as they wend their way through this spine-tingling tale of werewolves, vampires, and inspired lunacy.

Bad Bears and a Bunny: An Irving and Muktuk Story

Daniel Manus Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

4 1/2 The Bad Boy Bears of Bayonne, New Jersey 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This new Pinkwater book is the equivalent of a shaggy dog story with bears--two "bad bears." Previously, Daniel and Jill Pinkwater team depicted Irving and Mutluk's forced departure from the Arctic (where they failed repeatedly to steal muffins) to the Bayonne, New Jersey zoo. That story ends more happily than it first appears, as the bears discover a muffin factory next to their new home! (Their larcenous adventures at the Bayonne muffin factory are recounted in "Bad Bears in the Big City : An Irving & Muktuk Story.")

"Bad Bears and a Bunny" contains the magnificent dry wit associated with the bear books, embedded within an incredible yarn told with style and panache. Much of the humor here derives from role and reputation reversal: The bad boy bears mistakenly identify a small white bunny as a very small but dangerous polar bear. When their polar bear friend Roy (a "good bear" who lives in his own apartement!) corrects them, they feel emboldened and insult the bunny. Mr. Bunny goes into attack mode:

"The bunny is fast. He runs at the bears. He kicks Irving in the ankle. He bites Mukluk on the toe. Then, he is back at the edge of the bear enclosure, eating grass as though nothing had happened." Later, the bear keeper reassures the frightened bears that, contrary to their vehement opinions, "The bunny does not hate you, and he will not eat you."

In a final plot twist, Roy invites them to a blueberry muffin soup and fishcakes party held by his brother, Larry (of "At the Hotel Larry" and "Bongo Larry)." (It's good to see all four bears united, as Larry had dropped out of sight since getting his lifeguard job at Mr. Frobisher's hotel.) Anticipating that--try as they may-- they probably won't be able to behave, the bears' mischievous plans when they discover the vicious bunny to the affair! Will they be able to lay low and behave, or will they become the bunny's prey once again?

While the earlier "Irving and Mutluk," and "Bongo Larry" might be funnier, this is a very satisfying book that touches lightly on themes of maturity, self-control, and living up to one's image. Children will recognize many of the bears' feelings and the predicaments in which they find themselves. ALthough some of the humor may be too dry for the small fry, the bears' bravado, and the bear/rabbit encounters and role reversals are easily appreciated.

Jill Pinkwater's illustrations seem even more accomplished than usual; although there's still a casual feeling to the drawings, they appear richer and more sophisticated in both content and color (the flowers are spectacular!) than in previous bear books. Daniel and Jill Pinkwater join John Updike and, lately, Stephen Colbert, as progenitors of the best in bear lore. You may wish to see other books in the series sold here at Amazon.com.

Editorial Review:

Irving and Muktuk are polar bears in the Bayonne, New Jersey, zoo. They wish they had privileges like their polar bear friend Roy, who goes home every night at six o'clock. But they are known as bad bears. The Zoo Director thinks Irving and Muktuk are not to be trusted.

One morning a small white bunny shows up, eating grass at the edge of the polar bear enclosure. Irving and Muktuk aren't sure what to make of it. They don't know how to behave. They make the bunny mad. Trouble is brewing at the zoo.

When their friend Roy invites them to a party at a fancy hotel, Irving and Muktuk are asked to behave themselves. They assure Roy that they can be trusted. But trust doesn't come easily, and when the bears arrive at the party, they are soon put to the test.

The Education of Robert Nifkin

Daniel Manus Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Alternative Education 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Daniel Pinkwater is perhaps the funniest writer of young adult fiction alive, but also not very well-known. His books are hard to find in bookstores, but prove to be a treasure and a laugh-out-loud treat when found. "The Education of Robert Nifkin" is no different.

The novel is written as a response to the following college application essay: "Characterize, in essay form, your high-school experience." Set in 1950s Chicago, the novel follows the title character through his first days at Riverview High School, a setting he soon comes to abhor. No one, teachers or students, seem to care about the missing education, the teachers indoctrinate the students against communists and Jews, and Robert finds himself destined to be a nerd. He soon stops going, and must face being kicked out and sent to an alternative school, where he has much more freedom, and truly begins to learn for the first time.

"The Education of Robert Nifkin" is a quick, funny read. Anyone familiar with Pinkwater's other writings will find familiar territory (and characters), and anyone familiar with Chicago will enjoy the references to landmarks and neighborhoods. The novel reads a little too much like a crazy quilt of stories, not necessarily focused or related, but enjoyable nevertheless.

Editorial Review:

The Education of Robert Nifkin is the education of a beatnik. Set in 1950s Chicago and conveyed in the form of a college essay, Robert Nifkin details his journey from a mind-numbing high school that smells to the curriculum-free carnival of a private school ruled by bohemians, beatniks, and freaks.

The Snarkout Boys and The Avocado of Death

Daniel J. Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderfully unique 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I remember reading (and rereading) this zany, gripping, urban adventure when I was in third or fourth grade (and its worthy sequel, The Snarkout Boys & the Baconburg Horror). On a whim, some twenty years later and with a law degree to my name, I tracked down a copy at the public library and ... wow! I enjoyed it every bit as much. Daniel Pinkwater deserves major kudos for such a book--someone buy that man a Napoleon or twelve.

The fast-paced story is told from the viewpoint of Walter Galt. Walter is a teenager on the verge of dying from boredom at Ghengis Khan High School, until he meets Winston Bongo, another suffering student and the self-proclaimed inventor of 'snarking out'. The boys' late-night snarkouts eventually bring them into contact with a smorgasbord of oddball characters (such as Ms. Bentley Saunders Harrison Matthews, aka Rat) and places, from Blueberry Park to Lower North Aufzoo Street to Beanbender's Beer Garden and beyond. Ultimately, with the help of the world's greatest living detective, Walter, Winston and Rat must locate the world's largest avocado and save the world (or at least the nations' realtors)--but watch out for stuffed Indian fruit bats!

Pinkwater is a true original and writes this surreal, comic yarn simply, cleanly, and hilariously. Highly recommended for kids, parents, avocado lovers ... and even lawyers who used to be kids. Five stars!

Editorial Review:

Walter and Winston set out to rescue the inventor of the Alligatron, a computer developed from an avocado which is the world's last defense against the space-realtors.

Fat Camp Commandos

Daniel Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Revolutionary! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Although some complain that the message is too strong, I think that given the fact that the self esteem of a fat child is constantly abused from every imaginable angle including simple cartoons, they need some heavy duty fire power to combat the other strong messages that tell them to hate themselves. I only wish that the strong message of this book was mirrored by other books. Something wimpy that beat around the bush wouldn't be at all effective, and you can be certain that the author does not beat around the bush! I also like that it does not insult the intelligence of children, which we all too often underestimate. The kids got the jokes, enjoyed the illustrations, and received a defined boost in their self esteem.
I hope that those with fat children, or even those with thin children who are fearful of fat, will purchase this incredible book and teach their children self respect instead of self hatred. I highly recommend it!

Editorial Review:

Fed up with the systematic jeering and abuse at Camp Noo Yoo, where frantic parents send their pudgy little darlings in hope that they will shed a few of those socially unacceptable pounds, Ralph and Sylvia Nebula and their friend, Mavis Goldfarb, hop a bus back to Pokooksie. There they seek revenge. Revenge on their parents. Revenge on Dr. Frizzbender, founder of Anti-Fat Day. And revenge on Richard ³Dick² Tator, the overweight and overbearing owner of Camp Noo Yoo.

Borgel

Daniel Manus Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Borgel Experience 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Whenever I read any of Mr. Pinkwater's books I am amazed at the range and intelligience of this humorist.
"Borgel" has become one of my favorites. From the first chapter I was hooked. The arrival of Borgel ,a flaky, casual genius, to the home of Melvin and his family is like a spark to dry wood. The world that "Uncle Borgel" takes his "Nephew" is fantastic but oddly comparable to our own (though I don't believe you'll be able to get any french fried meteorites in your local McDonald's).
This story moves along with a series of events that keeps one's mind sparked and one's lips twitching with laughter.
Mr. Pinkwater's "Borgel" flows like melted popsicles.

Borgel and Fafner 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I discovered the works of Daniel Pinkwater through one of my nieces, who happened to name her two cats after two characters from "Borgel." Daniel Pinkwater possesses a sheer, mad comic genius. He spins tales that are wildly funny and entertaining, and yet manages to squeeze in a lesson. (Even if that lesson is that animals are stupid or to never listen to what a fish says.)

"Borgel" tells the story of Melvin Spellbound and his uncle Borgel. Borgel is of no clear relation and shows up one day out of the blue. He stays in his room for weeks at a time and the family children may only enter through invitation, wearing a tie. One night Melvin is invited to Borgel's room and he believes that they are running away. They wind up on an adventure through space-time-and-the-other.

Pinkwater peppers his story with hilarity mixed with reality. Borgel and Melvin's space travels are delightfully funny and deepen our appreciation of the wide cast of characters, including Fafner the dog and Freddie the Grivnizoid, as they search space and Hell for the Great Popsicle. Throughout all his whimsy and witty words, Pinkwater truly makes us care about the characters and wraps up a story that may seem to have wandered so far that there would be no coming back. Just like what would happen in space travel, if the Dorbzeldge was to drift past the road barriers.

Editorial Review:

Melvin Spellbound's humdrum life suddenly becomes extraordinary when 111-year-old Borgel arrives and takes him and the talking dog, Fafner, on a rollicking trip through Time, Space, and The Other in search of The Great Popsicle, Anthropoid Bloboforms and Grivnizoids!

Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving & Muktuk Story

Daniel Manus Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Bearly Concealed Fun 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

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...

Editorial Review:

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?

Uncle Boris in the Yukon: and Other Shaggy Dog Stories

Daniel Pinkwater

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Rave reviews for Uncle Boris in the Yukon 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Anyone who knows Daniel Manus Pinkwater's work is destined to buy this book for the sheer pleasure of carefully digesting every syllable he writes, as always. In this autobiographical book he bears his huge soul, his comical side (that we all know and love) and his uncanny, campy, unusual way of looking at the world, all as it relates to his many relationships with Canines.
Buy it! You will not be disappointed.

Editorial Review:

With the candor and wit that he's known for, Daniel Pinkwater shares heartfelt and often peculiar reflections on the dogs (and other assorted creatures) that have shaped his life and family traditions. Pinkwater begins with the tale of his colorful Uncle Boris, who sets off on a trek from Warsaw to the Yukon in search of gold. Along the way he strikes up a curious friendship with Jake, the lead dog in his team of malamutes, who, as it happens, converses in perfect Yiddish. This is the first in a series of delightful anecdotes that introduce a curious cast of canines, including a couple of wolf breeds, a Labrador retriever, a few more malamutes, a chow chow, a mutt, and even a Pekinese, among others.
A "mordantly funny and smartly entertaining mix of memoir and fancy" (Booklist), Uncle Boris in the Yukon shows us a world where, though Pinkwater is top dog, it's the four-legged companions who steal the show.