Moko sees the ocean for the first time. He thinks it is a huge river or lake, but when he tastes the water, he notices that it is salty. He wonders what sorcerer would have played such a trick. Back in his village, he asks an old wise man to cast a spell on the village’s river so that the drinking water never becomes salty. The wise man reassures him that this is not necessary, the water will never be salty and Moko is grateful that someone has already thought of protecting the village’s river.

Alarick’s country is very strange. It has been many days now that night has not falen, and no one seems to be worried. Moko decides to head towards the horizon to see what is keeping the sun from setting and Alarick goes with him. Along the way, Moko tries to lull the sun to sleep with a lullaby from his country. The sun looks like it will set, but stops short and rises again. Perhaps the ocean is frozen at the horizon and is keeping the sun from setting. He decides to ask the fishermen and one of them responds that the world is filled with such mysteries and that it is more precious for him to learn the secrets of his friend than that of the sun.

It is night time and Moko can’t sleep. Looking out to the horizon, he notices a shot of colour at the water’s surface. He wakes Mei-Li to ask her what he is seeing. Together they take a barge and set off. Under them, a rainbow of colours is dancing in the waves. Moko and Mei-Li think that the fish must be organizing a party and decide to dive in. Bit by bit the sun is rising and day is breaking. The two friends return to the village, overjoyed at the wonders of the ocean.

Moko et Totémi restent quelque temps au bord de ce lac. Un matin, un immense bruit agite le village. C’est alors qu’une coulée de boue géante descend du flanc de la montagne et menace d’engloutir le village. Moko s’avance vers la coulée de boue en implorant la montagne d’épargner le village. Il se souvient de Meï-Li qui savait parler à la montagne. Il sort de sa poche la pierre précieuse qu’elle lui avait offerte et s’apprête à l’offrir comme avait fait Meï-Li au bord du volcan. Mais Totémi l’en empêche et lui offre le collier qu’elle a au cou. La montagne épargne le village et la boue se déverse dans le lac. Moko promet d’offrir un jour à Totémi ce qu’il aura de plus cher...



Ce livre est disponible en français : Les montagnes se rebelle

Les étoiles scintillent et Moko pense à son village. Totémi lui propose de le suivre et découvrir où se cache le bout du monde. Ils partent au petit matin... En chemin, le désert apparaît et se dressent bientôt devant eux de curieuses montagnes... puis une vallée étroite et profonde, sillonnant à perte de vue. Un homme leur dit que seul les cœurs purs et courageux parviennent à en connaître le bout. Ils s’y engagent, pleins de confiance... Moko joue de la flûte et l’écho des montagnes le guide...

Ce livre est disponible en anglais : Les drôles de montagne

Day after day, Moko has been going to the shore and contemplating the rising sun. On one particular morning, he is accompanied by his friend, the village’s “wise man”. He asks his friend what he might find at the end of the world, he would very much like to go there. The old man tells him that he must leave everything behind and find out; he doesn’t know what lies at the end of the world but that he would very much like to. Moko promises to return and share his discoveries and takes off on a raft. Suddenly he is caught up in a terrible storm and he pleads with the Sea Beast to let him through. The tornado swirls around his raft and lifts him high in the sky then drops him back atop the waves, safe and sound. As the storm fades into the distance, Moko thanks the Sea Beast for keeping him safe and is now convinced that he will finally know what lies on the other side of the ocean.

As they drift away from the iceberg, Moko and Alarick’s boat is surrounded by a thick fog. Moko thinks this is smoke and that there must be fire. He cannot even see his friend, just hears his voice telling him that a sudden fog on the ocean can last for a long time and that only patience will save them. Moko thinks that he should not have thrown his net so soon and that the ocean is blindfolding them so they won’t see which way it is taking them. Alarick begins to play his flute and the fog begins to thin. They discover a lovely bay, sheltered from the wind, ideal for fishing. Moko is filled with admiration for his friend who knew how to tame the ocean.

Intrigued by the name given to the mountains in the horizon, “the Hills of the round Earth”, Moko ventures off to see if the Earth is, in fact, round. An old wise man tells him that yes, if he were to walk in a straight line he could very well go all the way around the earth and come back to his starting point. Moko does as he is told and travels all the way around the Earth and returns back to his village, but since he didn’t have the feeling that he was walking around a sphere, he continues thinking that the Earth is flat.

Moko is woken by the sound of singing coming from the other end of the beach. It is Mei-Li, who wears a hat the shape of a sand dune and whose eyes are the shape of a moon crescent. As they are walking towards Mei-Li’s village, they feel a terrible rumble and see black smoke coming from the mountain. Moko thinks this is his fault, that he has trespassed in the forbidden forest, and wants to apologize. They arrive at the edge of an enormous chasm, a veritable fire pit. To calm the mountain, Moko offers it a beautiful seashell, as Mei-Li’s ancestors did. The mountain’s rumbling stops and Moko is proud to have learned it’s language.

During the dry season, the river’s water dries up and what is left turns to mud, making it impossible to swim or to drink. Moko wonders how to find water. An old man carrying a stick tells him he should dig behind some rocks, and there he finds water sprouting from the ground. A hidden spring! Moko is so happy at this discovery, he tells himself that water is so precious that it hides itself in the ground to make sure that there is always some left, even when the river is dry.

On this night, Moko is meditating, contemplating the horizon. Mei-Li comes to keep him company. All of a sudden, they hear a hollow and continuous sound coming from beyond the beach. Mei-Li is frightened but Moko is curious and wants to know what is making this sound. As they approach the hills, the sound gets louder and louder and Mei-Li is more and more frightened, so Moko decides to go around the dune on his own. As he does so, the sound changes and becomes more of a song. Moko returns and tells Mei-Li that it is the sand and the ground singing together. She decides to sing as well. Moko thinks to himself that the magical dune is urging him to go on with his travels and he knows that this is likely his last day in the village. With a heavy heart, Moko decides that at dawn he will need to pack his bags.

With a storm approaching, Moko heads towards a nearby tree to seek shelter. An old man urges him to reconsider and tells him to return to the village, the tree could suddenly burst into flame. On his way back to the village, Moko sees a lightning bolt hit the very same tree, and set it on fire. Frightened, Moko thinks that the old man must be a magician to have predicted such a thing.

Night falls and Moko, having followed the footprints in the snow, reaches the seemingly uninhabited village. He notices a young boy by a shrub who is cutting firewood. He introduces himself as Alarick and invites Moko into his home. Along the way, they hear a great rumbling sound that startles them, like the breath of a monster. Moko wants to go to the source of the noise, thinking it is the reason for the villagers’ hiding. Alarick then leads him to the back of the village where he shows him a geyser and a pool of hot water. Moko thinks that Alarick must know a great deal of secrets about this new land and decides to stay a while, the end of the world can wait for now.

Having managed to get away from the iceberg, Moko and Alarick are moored in the peaceful bay and they decide to fish. They disembark and go off to find branches to make fishing lines. But when they return, the water level has gone down and their boat is beached and the sea is far in the distance. Confused, they go in search of a river, but everything is frozen! Tired, hungry and tired, they return to their boat, which is again floating atop the waves. The sea has returned! Cautious of this strange phenomenon, they take their boat further out to see and finally throw their lines and catch some fish, convinced that the sea simply wanted to take them to this spot where the fishing would be better.

The snow’s thaw is drawing to a close and the mountain is shedding it’s white robe. Alarick and Moko are fishing in one of the mountain’s springs and are catching nothing. They ask an old wise man to tell them where there might be fish. He points them towards the road to the “Ancient mountain”. They follow the road the old man told them about and reach a green luxuriant hill covered with fruit trees and streams. They think that this hill, smaller than their mountain, richer and greener, is younger and simply hasn’t grown up yet.

On this morning, Moko is rowing relentlessly to bring back the barge as Mei-Li sleeps. Suddenly, he can’t seem to make the oar move at all. He wakes Mei-Li so she can help him row, but it is no use, the barge starts moving in the opposite direction. In the distance they notice a fisherman and try to call out to him, but he is too far and cannot hear them. Beyond a huge boulder they see a forest and start rowing furiously in its direction. Finally ashore, Moko and Mei-Li think that the sea still had another secret in store for them, this new part of Mei-Li’s island.

In the middle of the day, the sun suddenly starts disappearing little by little. Frightened, Moko wonders what magician could be responsible for this. With the village wise man he goes off to find the sorcerer responsible for the sun’s disappearance. When they cannot find the culprit, they join the other villagers to observe the sky. An old lady sees them and tells them she has seen this happen before and to have no fear, the sun will return. When it does, Moko thinks to himself that the sun, tired of shining every day, must sometimes simply need a little nap.

On that morning, Moko goes to see he friend the village wise man. The old man has such a beautiful garden filled with so many beautiful flowers that Moko spends the whole day admiring them. The old man gives him a rose, and tells him to take very good care of it. When Moko returns home, he notices that his rose is wilting. He thinks of bringing it to a river, but the rose dries out completely. The old man finds Moko crying, saddened by the loss of his beautiful flower. As the wind gusts around them, the old man tells him to look down at his precious rose. Moko is amazed to discover that his withered rose has become a sand rose. The wise man tells him to guard this secret as if it was a treasure. Moko thinks then that he must also have meant a great deal to the rose, and that the wind consoled his sadness.

One morning, Alarick tells Moko that there is no more food in the village so they must head far off into the sea to go fishing. They take a small boat and head out until nightfall when they anchor in the shadow of a great boulder of ice to protect them from the wind. When they wake up they don’t recognize their surroundings. Everything has changed! The ice boulder is drifting along the waves surrounded by dozens of others like it and is dragging their boat along with it. Alarick is scared and tells Moko that they have hit an iceberg and that it is dangerous, but Moko is confident that the ocean has simply provided them with a helping hand to guide them to where there will be more fish for them to bring back to the village.

Survolant le désert, Moko et Totémi aperçoivent enfin la mer et ses étendues bleues. Puis un chapelet de petites îles, couvertes de vert et de blanc. Fascinés par le paysage et les airs, ils ne font pas attention au vent qui se lève. Ce dernier agite leur cerf-volant et Totémi, épuisée, lâche prise. Moko ne peut la laisser tomber seule, il lâche à son tour. Ils atterrissent dans l’eau… dans un lagon splendide qu’ils découvrent ensemble. La nature a su récompenser leur courage.

Moko est un jeune aventurier d'une curiosité infinie et d'une imagination débordante. Son grand défi : découvrir le bout du monde ! Moko pourra t-il sauver son amie Totémie de cette impressionnante chute d'eau ? 

Ce livre existe aussi en français : Le rideau d'écume

That morning, Moko tells himself that it is time to leave Mei-Li’s land and he gets his raft ready. A man tells him that he must take the route of the great plains to continue his journey. Moko goes to the village to bid farewell to Mei-Li who has made rice cakes for him. One morning a few days after his departure he reaches the famous route where the horizon seems never-ending. As he walks a great gust of wind makes him fall and drop his precious stone. Seeing it on the ground, Moko thinks of Mei-Li and tells himself he must go on for those he has left behind. He goes on while clutching his stone in his hand. Moko’s heart lightens as he thinks that one day his travels will bring him back to those he loves.

Moko, watching the sky one night, sees a shooting star and wonders where the stars come from. He travels to the mountain and meets a woman tending to a bonfire. As the woman blows on the fire to revive it, glowing embers fly up high into the sky. Moko thinks that he has found the source of all the stars in the sky.

Moko wonders why the clouds all come and cry on his village at once. Why are they so sad? He asks the old wise man who suggests that he wait until the end of the rainy season to understand. Once the rains have stopped, Moko returns to see the old man. He tells Moko that the answer is in the fields. Moko sees then that the rains have made the crops grow and thinks that the clouds are not crying when it rains, they are offering all of their water to the earth to make it fertile.

On that night the tide was low and the boat had been beached. Moko and Alarick were playing percussion and flute to pass the time. Suddenly, it was as if their music was being accompanied by a strange singing. They decided to investigate the source of this strange new sound. Walking along a hilly path in the forest, they were surrounded by hundreds of tall rocks that stood like humans in the dusk. A gust of wind blew and they could once again hear the bizarre song. Frightened at first, Moko and Alarick decided that the rocks were singing as a choir and the joined them with their instruments. When the wind fell, they regained their boat, happy to have participated in the symphony of the singing stones... who were probably lonely and wanted to attract visitors.