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Kamalani Hurley

Book Review: Lei and the Invisible Island by Malia Maunakea 

Native Hawai­ian author Malia Mau­nakea has done it again with book #2 in her Lei and the Leg­ends series for mid­dle graders. Her newest book, Lei and the Invis­i­ble Island, takes Lei and the gang on a some­times wild, some­times scary, but always fun and sat­is­fy­ing adven­ture. Lei and the Invis­i­ble Island begins where Lei and the Fire God­dess left off. Just when it seems that Kaipo, her best friend and ʻau­makua, is safe, his pen­dant goes miss­ing. Now the race is on to save Kaipo from obliv­ion. The ever-resource­­ful Lei gath­ers her friends and takes the read­er on an adven­ture that is ulti­mate­ly indige­nous at its roots. Yet todayʻs read­er will find the sto­ry acces­si­ble because of its fresh, mod­ern take on tra­di­tion­al legends.

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Kamalani Hurley

Book Review: Tala Learns to Siva 

There’s some­thing mag­i­cal about chil­dren’s books writ­ten by Native Hawai­ian and Pacif­ic Island authors. Until recent­ly, sto­ries about our com­mu­ni­ties told by our peo­ple were large­ly miss­ing in chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. Thank­ful­ly, the times are chang­ing, and more voic­es are emerg­ing to tell our own sto­ries. The best of these nar­ra­tives sing with heart and authen­tic­i­ty that comes from being root­ed in the com­mu­ni­ty. Tala Learns to Siva is one of those sto­ries. This delight­ful Pacif­ic Island sto­ry by tal­ent­ed author Kealani Netane deserves a space not just on a child’s book­shelf but on school library shelves everywhere. 

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Kamalani Hurley

Publisher’s Weekly Sneak Peak: Kaho’olawe Picture Book! 

I’ve missed you, my read­ing and writ­ing friends! It’s been a lit­tle while since my last blog post, but that’s because I’ve been work­ing on a cou­ple of man­u­scripts. As Stephen King once said, When you’re writ­ing, the book is boss. No kid­ding. My debut pic­ture book, Kaho’olawe: The True Sto­ry of An Island and Her Peo­ple (illus­trat­ed by Hari­nani Orme) is sched­uled for Spring 2025. And look what I found in Publisher’s Week­ly Spring 2025 Children’s Sneak Peak issue! 

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Kamalani Hurley

Book Review: I See Color, by Valerie Bolling and Kailei Pew 

Author Valerie Bollingʻs pic­ture books are always great choic­es for kids. Her col­or­ful, lyri­cal ear­ly read­ers and pic­ture books focus on the joys and tri­umphs of child­hood. Her first non-fic­­tion pic­ture book is a col­lec­tion of bio­graph­i­cal sketch­es, I See Col­or: An Affir­ma­tion and Cel­e­bra­tion of Our Diverse World. The col­lec­tion’s short yet engag­ing for­mat makes it the per­fect intro­duc­tion of short biogra­phies to chil­dren. I am delight­ed that our own Native Hawai­ian activist and schol­ar, the late Dr. Hau­­nani-Kay Trask is one of the book’s fea­tured unsung heroes. 

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Kamalani Hurley

Interview with Native Hawaiian Author Kealani Netane 

If you rec­og­nize Native Hawaiian/Sāmoan writer Kealani Netane’s name, you’re prob­a­bly a fan of her pop­u­lar book­sta­gram, Lit­tle Pasi­fi­ka Read­ers. Or you might you rec­og­nize her from her thought­ful blog posts at Pacif­ic Islanders in Pub­lish­ing. Now add chil­dren’s book author to her list of pro­fes­sion­al accom­plish­ments. Her won­der­ful debut pic­ture book, TALA LEARNS TO SIVA (Scholas­tic, 2024) is the sweet­est sto­ry of a child’s desire to dance the tra­di­tion­al Sāmoan taualu­ga just as like grace­ful aunt. Through engag­ing text and beau­ti­ful illus­tra­tions by award-win­n­ing illus­tra­tor Dung Ho, young read­ers learn, like Tala, that they can do any­thing with prac­tice and patience. We are thrilled to talk sto­ry with Kealani today.

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Kamalani Hurley

Interview with Author/Illustrator Yuko Green 

Pick up any pop­u­lar chil­dren’s book in Hawai’i, and chances are that it is illus­trat­ed by Yuko Green. The award-win­n­ing author/illustrator of dozens of chil­dren’s pic­ture and activ­i­ty books, Yuko’s mixed-media art­work is unmis­tak­able with its vibrant col­ors and delight­ful sub­jects that chil­dren love. Her work cel­e­brates the peo­ple, nature, and tra­di­tions of our islands. We are so pleased to talk sto­ry with Yuko Green today.

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