2025 was an amazing year! I am so grateful!
This banner year began with the launch party at Native Books of my debut children’s book, Kaho’olawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People. The book was a dream come true and three years in the making. Mahalo to owner Maile Meyer and her incredible staff for hosting us!
Then came the wonderful news that the book was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection! By the end of the first quarter, Kaho’olawe had earned starred reviews by the School Library Journal and by Kirkus.
I’m always up to talk about the book, and so I did in a flurry of interviews and posts during the summer and fall. Even more fun was attending several book events with the book’s talented illustrator, Harinani Orme.
We ended the year in the best way imaginable — Kaho’olawe was honored on FIVE national Best of 2025 lists:
- NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Books
- New York Public Library Best Books
- School Library Journal Best Nonfiction Elementary Books
- Betsy Bird 31 Lists, 2025 American History Books for Kids
- Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature Best Books
Each recognition is such an honor, and I am so very grateful to each of these organizations and to the team at Millbrook Press/Lerner!
Oh, yeah, and I worked on other writing projects, too.
- I spent most of the year working on a manuscript for a nonfiction middle grade history tentatively titled Mai Poina, about the 1899–1900 plague and fires at Honolulu’s Chinatown. When I turned it in a week before its due date, I celebrated by doing cartwheels in my head! It’s due to release in 2027.
- My next picture book, At the Water’s Edge, a biography about the esteemed Native Hawaiian ethnobotanist, Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott, was announced at Publisher’s Weekly. The illustrator is up-and-coming local Hawai’i artist Remi Jose.
- Another quick project this summer included writing two Little Golden Books for Disney/Random House, which I think will come out in June 2, 2026.
- Perhaps most challenging of all, I contributing to a poetry anthology spearheaded by author Keila Dawson, writing about the forced annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.
- I squeezed in a four-week course on writing novels in verse at Highlights.
I didn’t do a lot of interviews and book reviews on my blog this year, but that’s because I had my hands full with the newest editions to our family, grandson Keaka and granddaughter Lālanihōkū, born in August and October.
Allow me to end the year by thanking those wonderful people who helped guide my literary journey this year.
- My agent extraordinaire, James McGowan of BookEnds, A Literary Agency
- My dream editor, Carol Hinz at Lerner
- Vicki Palmquist (my web guru) and Steve Palmquist (programmer and all-around troubleshooter) at Winding Oak
Thank you for following my blog and following me on Facebook and on Instagram. I send all my aloha to you! See you in 2026!
Image courtesy of Harinani Orme.
