BAD BEARS IN THE BIG CITY

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)