BAD BEARS GO VISITING

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)