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Photo from Amazon.com Review by Sandra Horning Mokie and Bik is a lively tale of energetic young twins living on a docked boat. Their mother is an artist who is always out “arting†and their father works on a ship at sea, which means most of the time their nanny, Ruby, looks after them. The twins have many adventures ranging from falling overboard to catching fish (or, as the twins say, “fiskâ€) to learning to swim with Erik the Viking. Throughout the story Mokie and Bik speak in their made up language, which only their nanny understands.
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As an early chapter book, Mokie and Bik is fun and different, with lovely detailed pen-and-ink illustrations to go with the text. Based on the cover illustration alone, my children and I were prepared to love this book. But, to be honest, my two boys didn’t like it. In fact, they found the twins’ language confusing and kept asking for clarification. Reading it aloud, I enjoyed some of the word play, but at times felt my tongue getting twisted up with phrases such as “swinging side to siding with Bik slip dippery riding splish swish sliding – splash! – overboard.â€
However, that said, my children did listen to the whole story and I think it is worth a read aloud just for some of the word play. And perhaps a twin reading it or hearing it aloud will better appreciate the twins’ special language that so often confused my boys who never shared such a thing.
Ages 7-10