A Bilingual English-Thai Series Written From the Inside
The Mali and Ben Series is a collection of bilingual English-Thai stories by Owen Jones, written for readers who want more than a language exercise. Each volume follows Mali and Ben through the everyday rhythms of rural Thailand – the rivers, the markets, the small routines that make up a life – while presenting the text in both English and Thai side by side.
The idea behind the series is simple. Most language learning material is written to teach first and entertain second, if at all. As a professional novelist, Owen Jones, who has lived in rural Thailand for more than twenty years, set out to reverse that. The bilingual English-Thai series exists because he wanted stories that worked as literature in their own right – stories a reader would want to finish even without the language learning angle – and then layered the bilingual format on top of that foundation.
This matters more than it might first appear. A bilingual English-Thai series that prioritises teaching often ends up with flat characters, thin plots, and dialogue that exists to demonstrate grammar points rather than to sound like real speech. Readers notice, and they stop reading. The Mali and Ben Series takes the opposite approach. The stories are written first as stories, set in places Owen Jones knows from daily life rather than from research, and the bilingual presentation follows from that.
There is also a practical reason this approach works. Language learners often plateau because their reading material is either too simple to hold their interest or too difficult to follow without constant dictionary use. A bilingual English-Thai series solves this by removing the guesswork – the translation sits right there on the page – while the story itself provides the motivation to keep turning pages. The learning happens almost as a side effect of wanting to know what happens to Mali and Ben next. Each chapter is followed by its own bilingual list of vocabulary and cultural notes too.
Riverside Stories – Volume One
Riverside Stories is the first book in the series and the one that establishes its world. Subtitled “Tales from a Thai Town by a River”, it introduces Mali and Ben against the backdrop of a riverside community – the kind of place where rivers shape daily life through markets, temples, fishing, and family. Readers who know Thailand will recognise the setting immediately. Those who do not will feel they have been there by the time they reach the end.
As the opening volume of the bilingual English-Thai series, Riverside Stories sets the tone for everything that follows. The English and Thai text run side by side throughout, making it equally useful for English speakers learning Thai, Thai speakers improving their English, or anyone curious about how the two languages sit next to each other on the page. It carries an age guidance of 12 and above, written for children and adults alike, and is available as both an ebook and a paperback.
You can find Riverside Stories on the book page, where the full description and retailer links are listed, or buy it directly through the Riverside Stories product page.
Reading Before You Buy
For readers who want a feel for the writing before committing, the first chapter of each book is available to read in full. This Mali and Ben Series article gives an overview of the series as a whole, while the first chapter of Riverside Stories lets you start the story itself – in both English and Thai – before deciding whether to read on. Reading a chapter or two is often the best way to judge whether a bilingual English-Thai series suits your level and your taste, far better than relying on a description alone.
What Comes Next
Riverside Stories is volume one of an ongoing series. Future volumes will continue to follow Mali and Ben, expanding the world that Riverside Stories establishes while keeping the same bilingual English-Thai format throughout. As each new book is published, it will join this page as part of the growing Mali and Ben Series – so this is the place to come back to for an overview of the series, links to every volume, and a starting point for new readers.
If you are new to the series, Riverside Stories is the place to begin.
You can read the first chapter of Riverside Stories completely free of charge here:
Riverside Stories: Chapter One