daniel pinkwater

Jingle, jingle! The ice cream cart is here. What’s your pleasure?

They say vanilla is America’s favorite flavor, followed by chocolate. I’ll take one of each, please, and while you’re at it, I wouldn’t mind a scoop or two of cherry amaretto, chocolate fudge brownie, spumoni, mint chocolate chip, and pralines and cream. ☺

The best thing about ice cream is that no matter how old you get, with those first few licks you’re a child again, and all the same rules apply — lick around the edge of your scoop so it doesn’t drip, don’t take too big a bite or you’ll get brain freeze, don’t lick too hard or your ice cream might fall off, and never bite the tip of your cone when there’s ice cream still in it.

Did you know that more ice cream is sold on Sunday than on any other day of the week? In Hawai’i, there was no such thing as eating ice cream mostly during the summer — it was a year-round treat we milked to the hilt: Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen, strawberry sundae ice cream cups at birthday parties, Creamsicles from the local sweet shop, small scoops of vanilla with shave ice, and of course all those other favorites we begged our mom for at the grocery store: Milk Nickel, Drumsticks, Fudgsicles, and don’t let me forget ice cream sandwiches! *licks lips*

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“All my books were easy to write — doesn’t it show?”
~ Daniel Pinkwater

*Snowball and Ursula talk PInkwater over blueberry muffins and tea.*

How could I not like Daniel Pinkwater?

Whenever I see his name I smile. I was thinking how this is a strange, conditioned response. I don’t know how or why it happens. Sure, he’s written around 100 books. And to be honest, it’s not like I’ve read dozens and dozens of them. I’ve read maybe ten. But they got to me. So much so, that whenever I see his name on a book, I put my Ugawawa mocassins on the wrong feet, step slightly to the left of center, and shift into giggle-and-snort mode. I just know it’s going to be good.

Hello. How could I not like a man who writes about polar bears and blueberry muffins?

So far, there are five titles in the Irving and Muktuk, Bad Bears, picture book series (ages 5-8). Trust me. This 9-foot tall pair with slitty, sneaky side eyes and galompo feet will have you rooting for them after the first page. Their main crime? Well, they do cheat each other at cards. But mostly they are motivated by the quest for muffins and more muffins, which results in questionable behavior, like, um, stealing.

In the first book, Irving and Muktuk: Two Bad Bears (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), we are introduced to the arctic town of Yellowtooth, which holds a Blueberry Muffin Festival every New Year. After Officer Bunny sees the bears trying to break into the muffin warehouse, he lures them into his station wagon, and has them airlifted by helicopter far above the Arctic Circle. The following New Year, the duo returns to Yellowtooth disguised as very large penguins. They are airlifted again and return three more times with different disguises, until Officer Bunny finally makes arrangements to have them relocated to the Bayonne Zoo.