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Mokie And Bik
Despite their differences, twins Mokie and Bik know how to work well together in everything and anything they do, in an amusing tale of sibling love from the author of Ark in the Park. 35,000 first printing.
74 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Wendy Orr
62 books204 followersI’m an author, but I could never have started writing books if I hadn’t loved reading them first. Reading isn’t just one of my favourite things to do; it’s one of the most important things in my life. I can’t imagine a world in which I couldn’t read, every day. That’s why I always read to my children every day, just as my parents used to read to me. Stories can be exciting, sad, funny, scary or comforting, but the most amazing thing about them is that they take us into new worlds and teach us something more about ourselves, all at the same time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
November 5, 2018
Entertaining, but somewhat semantically confusing story about twins who live on a boat in a harbor with their mother and a nanny named Ruby while their father is at sea. The twins are quite rambunctious and are said to be always "overboard or underfoot".
The narrative is often lyrical, but the juxtaposition of many of the syllables and odd made-up words could be frustrating for beginning readers, so I would recommend it be a parent and child read to help explain any misunderstandings.
The black-and-white illustrations are very detailed and I loved the attention to the little aspects of a nautical life. I thought that the picture of Erik on page 33 was very reminiscent of Mr. Whiskers from the Cranberryport series by Wende Devlin.
Still, if I was a bit dissatisfied with one thing with this book, it was that Mokie and Bik did not know how to swim. They are young, but I would expect that anyone who lives by the ocean in a boat would have swimming lessons from a very, very young age.
I have taught swimming and I know that young children cannot be unsupervised by the water nor can you assume that they will retain swimming knowledge, especially with a big break between seasons. But to depict these children getting into a dangerous situation and then finally getting their first (rather unconventional) swimming lesson seems almost irresponsible to me.
Our own girls had lessons year after year until it got to the point that they could not remember ever not knowing the basics of swimming and I would expect that to be more of the situation in this environment, too. I guess it's just my own bias, especially since I never took lessons until I was in college and as we lived for the first years of our daughters' lives on tropical islands near the ocean. I wasn't going to take chances with water safety.
The narrative is often lyrical, but the juxtaposition of many of the syllables and odd made-up words could be frustrating for beginning readers, so I would recommend it be a parent and child read to help explain any misunderstandings.
The black-and-white illustrations are very detailed and I loved the attention to the little aspects of a nautical life. I thought that the picture of Erik on page 33 was very reminiscent of Mr. Whiskers from the Cranberryport series by Wende Devlin.
Still, if I was a bit dissatisfied with one thing with this book, it was that Mokie and Bik did not know how to swim. They are young, but I would expect that anyone who lives by the ocean in a boat would have swimming lessons from a very, very young age.
I have taught swimming and I know that young children cannot be unsupervised by the water nor can you assume that they will retain swimming knowledge, especially with a big break between seasons. But to depict these children getting into a dangerous situation and then finally getting their first (rather unconventional) swimming lesson seems almost irresponsible to me.
Our own girls had lessons year after year until it got to the point that they could not remember ever not knowing the basics of swimming and I would expect that to be more of the situation in this environment, too. I guess it's just my own bias, especially since I never took lessons until I was in college and as we lived for the first years of our daughters' lives on tropical islands near the ocean. I wasn't going to take chances with water safety.
December 10, 2015
The rhyme and rhythm of this book is pure poetry. The author's voice so utterly perfect, the twinspeak funny and perfectly comprehensible. I wanted to read this book after finishing it, the second time out loud. This is one I have to own and will re-read whenever I need a smile and that feeling you get inside when you read the most perfect book.
That doesn't tell you a thing of what it's about - but saying it's a children's story about twins who live on a boat and have adventures certainly doesn't begin to tell you anything about this book. It's how you feel when you read it that counts. And this one is..as I said...perfection.
That doesn't tell you a thing of what it's about - but saying it's a children's story about twins who live on a boat and have adventures certainly doesn't begin to tell you anything about this book. It's how you feel when you read it that counts. And this one is..as I said...perfection.
April 8, 2013
I really enjoyed reading the the Mokie and Bik books with Emily. I loved the playful and poetic use of language and the art, and I also really enjoyed the characters. I want to live on the Bullfrog, have clams on the beach and sail the illy-ally-o.
April 3, 2008
Wendy Orr is a woman whose star has risen. Consider the evidence. Her book Nim’s Island becomes a big-budget film with Jodie Foster. Her book Mokie and Bik is widely hailed as hailable (widely). And what’s more she manages to wrangle up-and-coming Ezra Jack Keats Award winning illustrator Jonathan Bean into creating the pictures for the latter book. 2008 is now her year of sequels. With Nim at Sea providing fans with a prompt Nim follow-up, she’s also cast her Aussie eyes upon the Mokie and Bik world as well. Mokie and Bik Go to Sea isn’t going to shock the socks off of anyone who has had the pleasure of reading the original. It just has the same wonderful wordplay. The same free-flowing energy, upbeat characters, and mischievous shenanigans. Even if you somehow missed the first, this early chapter book makes for a brilliant bedtime readaloud. That is, if your tongue is truly up to the challenge.
In true Pippi Longstocking fashion, Mokie and Bik’s father returned at the end of their last book to sail their boat the Bullfrog out upon the illy-ally-o. Their pets have increased from the faithful sheepdog Laddie and the turtle Slow to include a Newfoundland pup with the ever-so accurate name of Waggles. Getting everything shipshape in time for the illy-ally-o isn’t as easy as it looks, though, and before the twins know it they’re underfoot, overboard, rowboating with a whale, and accidentally on an unexpected boat ride all alone quicker than you can say “jiggly heap”.
Sometimes language tastes good. It just does. It’s a delicious sensation to say out loud something like, “Waggles frogleaped off the log, across the beach, and down the wharf skid skad skedaddle after the big ginger hisser.” That’s Orr’s gift to us here. She gives us words we know and words we don’t know and just swirls them all together in the best possible series of combinations. Common words replace commoner words, and so we get a sentence like, “Mokie was still paddling and swallowing big mouthfuls of harbor.” And though I’ve a low spoonerism saturation point, I even liked that the twins’ mother drove a “botormike”. I just did.
It’s funny that in a book as high-spirited and delightful as this that you never get the sense that the twins’ absent parents and distracted nanny have anything but the greatest affection for their twins. They’re always busy, but I’m sure that that’s how parents feel to a lot of kids. Constantly involved in other activities and only offering a swipe here and there at the children when they’ve gotten a touch too much underfoot.
Again, it’s much with the same and I’m sure you could bottle Mokie and Bik and its sequel together and neither would be the worse for wear. For those of you desperate for delightful early chapter books, Orr’s pair is fun from tail to tip. A great book to give to anyone that claims that language is never used to charm and delight in children’s books anymore. Or to give to anyone, really.
Ages 5-9.
In true Pippi Longstocking fashion, Mokie and Bik’s father returned at the end of their last book to sail their boat the Bullfrog out upon the illy-ally-o. Their pets have increased from the faithful sheepdog Laddie and the turtle Slow to include a Newfoundland pup with the ever-so accurate name of Waggles. Getting everything shipshape in time for the illy-ally-o isn’t as easy as it looks, though, and before the twins know it they’re underfoot, overboard, rowboating with a whale, and accidentally on an unexpected boat ride all alone quicker than you can say “jiggly heap”.
Sometimes language tastes good. It just does. It’s a delicious sensation to say out loud something like, “Waggles frogleaped off the log, across the beach, and down the wharf skid skad skedaddle after the big ginger hisser.” That’s Orr’s gift to us here. She gives us words we know and words we don’t know and just swirls them all together in the best possible series of combinations. Common words replace commoner words, and so we get a sentence like, “Mokie was still paddling and swallowing big mouthfuls of harbor.” And though I’ve a low spoonerism saturation point, I even liked that the twins’ mother drove a “botormike”. I just did.
It’s funny that in a book as high-spirited and delightful as this that you never get the sense that the twins’ absent parents and distracted nanny have anything but the greatest affection for their twins. They’re always busy, but I’m sure that that’s how parents feel to a lot of kids. Constantly involved in other activities and only offering a swipe here and there at the children when they’ve gotten a touch too much underfoot.
Again, it’s much with the same and I’m sure you could bottle Mokie and Bik and its sequel together and neither would be the worse for wear. For those of you desperate for delightful early chapter books, Orr’s pair is fun from tail to tip. A great book to give to anyone that claims that language is never used to charm and delight in children’s books anymore. Or to give to anyone, really.
Ages 5-9.
June 19, 2009
I loved this book! I am such a sucker for a great kid's book that sounds wonderful when read aloud (think Elephant's Child). This one is written for a younger child, and will be fun for the adults who read it to them!
Mokie and Bik lived on a boat called Bullfrog. They lived in it, on it, all around it -- monkeying up ladders and down ropes, bump thump rumping from the steering drawers to the bouncy bunk.
They slip slide slippered in soggy socks on the slippery wet deck, and played cowboy on the rudder, slip dippery riding, splish swish sliding -- splash! -- overboard. Barnacle bells! Twin overboard again!
This rollicking tale of twins who live on a houseboat, overboard and underfoot, is based on the author's father, who was one of those twins! Loaded with lively pen and ink drawings.
Mokie and Bik lived on a boat called Bullfrog. They lived in it, on it, all around it -- monkeying up ladders and down ropes, bump thump rumping from the steering drawers to the bouncy bunk.
They slip slide slippered in soggy socks on the slippery wet deck, and played cowboy on the rudder, slip dippery riding, splish swish sliding -- splash! -- overboard. Barnacle bells! Twin overboard again!
This rollicking tale of twins who live on a houseboat, overboard and underfoot, is based on the author's father, who was one of those twins! Loaded with lively pen and ink drawings.
June 16, 2008
Everything about this book has the feeling of an earlier era--the art, the whole story line and the language remind me of something written by someone like Eleanor Estes or Eleanor Farjeon and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. There's real charm here.
The twins "language", BTW is apparently something that's very common among twins, and may inspire other kids to make up their own secret words. This would make a very nice choice for reading with your own child on your lap, though I can't see using it for a group read.
The twins "language", BTW is apparently something that's very common among twins, and may inspire other kids to make up their own secret words. This would make a very nice choice for reading with your own child on your lap, though I can't see using it for a group read.
March 19, 2010
Bik and Mokie live on a boat with their parents and have rolicking adventures "overboard" and "underfoot". Invented words (brooped, botormike), alliteration (barnacle bells),repetition (row-row-rowboat) and other stylistic language make this a fun book to read aloud with young children.
February 13, 2016
What a terribly boring, bland book. :| Not to mention the library book really reeked of poo or something else that died a long time ago. :|
June 26, 2020
Personally I was not super impressed with this book. I thought it was going to be a bit of an adventure story, but it was a big tongue twister to me. My daughter on the other hand said she thought it was silly and a fun little book so at least that counts for something in getting her to read.
January 2, 2018
Weird.
October 10, 2020
My 8yo daughter is a fan of the Nim books, so when I found this one, I thought I’d check it out. She liked it, but I LOVED it. It’s poetry. Highly recommend.
January 14, 2021
Very cute and fun to read. Plenty of tongue twisters.
June 3, 2024
My child thought this book was hilarious. I thought it was cute, but it was a bit hard to read out loud without my brain auto correcting some of the words (ex: botormike / motorbike).
September 28, 2012
The art was my favorite thing about Mokie & Bik—it was crisp and fleshed out. In this book, the art (some of which you can see on Jonathan Bean's website) is in pencil rather than pen, and it's sketchy, looser. Sometimes this works for me—I love the opening spread, with the looming hulls of ships and the twins' neighbor, Erik, and his fishing boat and his cat—but sometimes it just feels unfinished. Bean does still admirably capture the motion of the twins and their surroundings: landing seabirds, lapping waves, leapfrogging kids, a running puppy. And I do quite like the softness in this image: the water and the smoke and the moon and the foliage at the left.
As with the last book, the text was secondary for me, though I did find it funnier and more charming in this one, with passages like this, when Mokie and Bik's puppy falls overboard:
Or this whole page, when Bik and Mokie are playing at getting Bullfrog ready to go to sea. And it's fun to read about Mokie and Bik's adventures, which include (unintentionally) taking Bullfrog to the fuel barge at the edge of the harbor by themselves, and fun for me to remember nautical vocabulary I haven't thought about in years (like the spring line: that's the rope holding the middle of the boat to the dock). Waggles the puppy and Laddie the dog kind of steal the show sometimes, and are totally great: there's one drawing of a sheepish-looking Waggles holding a bumper (which is supposed to be hanging from the boat's side/keeping it from bashing against the dock) that just slays me with its cuteness, and another of Laddie with Slow, the pet "tortle," that's also ridiculously sweet. I was going to give this two stars, but I bumped it up one for the dogs.
As with the last book, the text was secondary for me, though I did find it funnier and more charming in this one, with passages like this, when Mokie and Bik's puppy falls overboard:
Waggles had black curly hair and big black paddly paws to help him swim. When he grew up he was going to be a swimming, rescuing Newfoundland dog. But right now he was a soggy shaggy round black waggles, and he knew how to swim but he didn't know which way to go. (8-9)
Or this whole page, when Bik and Mokie are playing at getting Bullfrog ready to go to sea. And it's fun to read about Mokie and Bik's adventures, which include (unintentionally) taking Bullfrog to the fuel barge at the edge of the harbor by themselves, and fun for me to remember nautical vocabulary I haven't thought about in years (like the spring line: that's the rope holding the middle of the boat to the dock). Waggles the puppy and Laddie the dog kind of steal the show sometimes, and are totally great: there's one drawing of a sheepish-looking Waggles holding a bumper (which is supposed to be hanging from the boat's side/keeping it from bashing against the dock) that just slays me with its cuteness, and another of Laddie with Slow, the pet "tortle," that's also ridiculously sweet. I was going to give this two stars, but I bumped it up one for the dogs.
September 28, 2012
Mokie and Bik are fraternal twins who live on a boat with their mom, their nanny, and some pets, which is just as exciting as it sounds. The art, by Jonathan Bean, is great: the cover, with Mokie swinging from a rope, pigtails flying, sets the tone of mischievousness and charm, and the endpapers are wonderful: they're cutaway drawings of the boat, Bullfrog, and its spaces and inhabitants, with the front endpapers set during the day and the back ones set at night. In both the images and the text, Mokie and Bik are often in motion: as the first chapter puts it, they're always "overboard or underfoot," and "twin overboard!" is a phrase that shows up early and keeps getting repeated (7). The twins have their own language, and the text is playful, with lots of action words, in sentences like: "Mokie slip slid slippered back down the deck, skate chase racing past the wheelhouse, slip slide slippering down to Bullfrog's stern, to balance on her sliptoes at the very back rail" (4). The family's aging canine, Laddie, is a "sleepdog" and another pet, Slow, is a "tortle"; ice cream from the captain of the police boat is "police cream." The twins' dad, meanwhile, isn't around much: he "had a ship-at-sea with clouds of sails on five tall masts and a brrr-ooping broop for fog, and he salty sailed around the world" (8). The twins get into trouble and out of it, and amuse themselves on the boat and the quayside, and the story is sweet enough, with the end being especially charming. But as an adult reader, the art is clearly the draw of these books. In addition to the aforementioned cover and endpapers, I also loved this picture of Mokie and Bik in their bunks with their portholes, this picture of the twins with Laddie, plus the start of the "Starfish and Sea Urchins" section, a great spread showing the working waterfront (complete with a tugboat!) where Mokie and Bik live.
May 16, 2013
I remember when I first saw this book wondering where in the heck it should go in the library. It's got lots of pictures and pretty big typeface, so it appears to be a good fit for our early chapter book collection (where it currently resides) but the language is so... creatively unique and lyrical that i thought it would present a significant challenge to the beginning readers who choose books from that shelf. well, i think I've found this book's true purpose--read-alouds to young listeners! We could read this book several times and still probably not get tired of the words. Here's a sample:
"Waggles [the dog] scrabble waggle scrabbled.
The water swished over the slippy wet deck, swoshed over Mokie's and Bik's soggy socks--and then Waggles skiddled out of the bucket, across the deck and --splash!--into the sea."
Can you just SEE that wet dog slipping all over the wet boat deck, trying to gain purchase with his nails and utterly failing?
Love it!
"Waggles [the dog] scrabble waggle scrabbled.
The water swished over the slippy wet deck, swoshed over Mokie's and Bik's soggy socks--and then Waggles skiddled out of the bucket, across the deck and --splash!--into the sea."
Can you just SEE that wet dog slipping all over the wet boat deck, trying to gain purchase with his nails and utterly failing?
Love it!
July 3, 2008
I've been eyeing this book for months, just waiting for a chance read it. I wanted so much to love it. Instead, I found the twins' secret language to be forced and non-sensical. The story closely resembled Pippi Longstocking (troublesome children mess about until their adventuring father comes home.) Mom is very odd, choosing to leave the children as she goes off on her "botormike" and when they ask her where she's going, she says, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." When dad returns from sea, she doesn't run up to hug him like the kids. She simply puts down her eating utensil. The whole thing was quite bizarre.
August 21, 2010
The story itself seemed to be okay with the novel setting of a houseboat and some adventures on the water but I found the humourous calling of things by different names confusing rather than funny. The language seems like it should be very fun- "wibble wabbled" and "rolicked" sniff wiffing the stinky salty brine- but in a setting with a lot of unfamiliar nautical vocabulary, it's difficult to tell what is made up and what is real. It might be better as a read aloud than silent reading, as I think it would make more sense.
September 25, 2015
I had hoped that this book, about two fraternal twins who live on a boat, would be clever cute and fun. Instead,I found it to be a bit weird. The twin language was rather cute at first, then became sort of annoying. If they were about 4 years old, it would be cute, but they're independent enough to be nearly twice that age. They seem like younger versions of a Pippi Longstocking type character. Maybe it would be more successful as a read-aloud, some of the language had a nice sing-song oral quality,
March 6, 2009
Mokie and Bik are mischievous twins who live on a boat, and they have their own lyrical, made-up language. Their mom drives a “botormike,” their artist mom may be busy “arting,” and dogs are called “waggles.” This moving up book is filled with plenty of appealing pen and ink illustrations which effectively break up the text and enliven the page. It’s attractive, but I found the slang to be tiresome. The intended audience may be more forgiving, and other reviews were more favorable.
July 2, 2012
Loved this book and so did my 8 yr old! We loved the language usage and creativity. My 8 year old loved the "different" use of words and had no trouble understanding and enjoying the stories. We viewed the chapters as different adventures and didn't feel they were not interconnected. It allowed us to put the book down and return for a new activity for Mokie and Bik. Will be one of my favs for kids for a long time.
June 25, 2008
The plot was weak (if it existed at all), and all of the word play might make this book less attractive to kids, but it was what drew me in. More a series of vignettes about a pair of twins who live on a houseboat than a cohesive story, I found myself growing very fond of this book and its characters. Not enough to buy it, though, which says something in and of itself.
February 24, 2009
This is a cute book with a series of little events that happen to twins Mokie and Bik. However, it has a LOT of nonsense words so I would recommend it for reading out loud to kids, but not really for kids to read on their own. Very confusing for me to follow. I can only imagine how hard for an 8-9 year old.
June 21, 2011
All the ingredients are there to have a rollicking sea tale with humor and a sense of rhythm, but it never seems to jell. The Twins, their pets, nanny/cook, and scatter brained parents create unfilled potential. Even so, the text does offer the opportunity for creative editing, and young children could find that a challenge.
August 10, 2012
Love Australian writers!
Interesting to read the reviews of this book. A love-hate relationship with the made-up language. Having children this age, they do just that, make up language, and what joy they have doing it! I feel joyful just watching their laughter at their new words. And so reading another "language" keeps their attention and keeps that lateral thinking active.
Interesting to read the reviews of this book. A love-hate relationship with the made-up language. Having children this age, they do just that, make up language, and what joy they have doing it! I feel joyful just watching their laughter at their new words. And so reading another "language" keeps their attention and keeps that lateral thinking active.
September 25, 2008
I thought this was boring and a bit silly. I don't really like it when authors mess with words like flutterby instead of butterfly. My grandfather did that on purpose, but other than that, I find it pretty annoying.
November 2, 2008
Cute story with really fun language. It's about a pair of twins who grow up on a boat with only each other and their pets to play with, so they develop their own crazy way of communicating. Felt something like a poem or a Dr. Seuss story. It would be fun to read aloud to my kids.
July 21, 2012
I read this with my kids...not my favorite and hard to read aloud because the author changes everyday words to make them silly...however that is why the kids loved it! Short chapters and a good book for a strong young reader.
March 23, 2013
I loved the look of this book and the illustrations. I just found the use of the nonsensical words distracting, as other reviewers have also said. Even so, there is enough here that I want o read it aloud and see what the kids think!
June 27, 2015
LOVE IT! It has a very Roald Dahl feel with wonderful illustrations on most pages. We didn't want it to end! Lots of good seafaring words to learn and words that aren't really words but fun to read and say! Now we need to read the other one she has written!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews