Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Mokie and Bik
Illustrator: Jonathan Bean
Fiction Series
7 to 9
Henry Holt, 2007 ISBN: 0805079793
Mokie and Bik are twins who live on a boat called the Bullfrog. Being relatively normal children, they are always underfoot driving their artist mother and their nanny to distraction. As they spend so much time together Mokie and Bik had their own way of speaking. It is so unique in fact that their own mother often does not understand them. Luckily their nanny, Ruby, does. She know that “tatties” are potatoes, cats are “hissers,” and fish are “fisk.” She also knows that when the twins tell her that they have been “overbunked,” they mean that they have fallen out of their bunks. On days when the sea is rough they are frequently overbunked.
One day the twins decide that they need a little time alone, so Mokie goes off to play hopscotch on the wharf, and her brother goes out for a row in their little boat the Tadpole. Mokie is so busy hopscotching that she does not pay any attention to what she is doing and she ends up in the water. Unfortunately, Mokie does not know how to swim, so she sinks. Again and again she goes down until, at last, help arrives.
This charming chapter book beautifully captures what life on a boat can be like if you are two mischievous twins. Written in a twin-ish language that young readers will not only delight in but will also appreciate, this book with its everyday sort of adventures and colorful characters, is a must for any young reader who dreams of living on a boat.
