MOKIE & BIK GO TO SEA

The high-energy twins introduced in Mokie & Bik (2007) enjoy more misadventures as they continue “monkeying up ladders and down ropes” and “soggy sock skat[ing] down the slippery wet deck” of their floating home, the Bullfrog. Here their father, newly returned from sailing the “illy-ally-o,” rows to the rescue when the Bullfrog is accidentally cast adrift, then takes the whole extended family out of the harbor and off to a beach for a cozy clambake. As before, Orr’s freewheeling language and Bean’s many, equally lively ink drawings combine to charge each moment of this rollicking nautical slice of life with a special magic. Climaxed by the sudden onboard arrival of a seal being chased by a “normous, scormous, eeenormous” orca, the breezy outing will have readers both exclaiming “Barnacle Bells” right along with Bik and his beleaguered dad and wishing they too could sail on the illy-ally-o with this adventuresome clan. (Fiction. 8-10)