Book Review

When I was a kid, I had a set of books called Great Illus­trat­ed Clas­sics. They were fat vol­umes full of sto­ries embell­ished with black and white draw­ings. The scari­est tales were from Greek and Roman mythol­o­gy where the hero bat­tled bad guys and won (most of the time.) 

Even in school, the myths we read were lim­it­ed to Greek and Roman gods with names like Zeus, Athena, Posei­don and Mars.

But where were the col­or­ful pic­ture books about Pele, Maui, Kaʻahu­pa­hau, Kama­puaʻa, the mene­hune? There weren’t any, not in the kidlit sec­tion of the library or in any of the illus­trat­ed clas­sics that lined my child­hood bookshelf.

The mes­sage native kids like me got loud and clear was that those Greeks and Romans were the clas­sic heroes, the only heroes worth learn­ing about.

Thank­ful­ly, times are chang­ing. More Native Hawai­ian authors and artists are revis­it­ing and retelling our tra­di­tion­al sto­ries for today’s young audiences.

The lat­est is a graph­ic nov­el, Hiʻi­a­ka and Panaʻe­wa, by Native Hawai­ian author Gabrielle Ahuliʻi. Intend­ed for the pic­ture book crowd, ages 4 – 8, and their grown-ups, this book is the per­fect intro­duc­tion to Hawai­ian myths for the youngest readers.

The sto­ry, as described in the sum­ma­ry, is: 

Hiʻi­a­ka wants to make the forests of Hawaiʻi safe for peo­ple. But sheʻll have to bat­tle an evil lizard named Panaʻe­wa and his army to do it. With a lit­tle help from her sis­ter, her friend, and some spe­cial pow­ers, sheʻs ready for a great battle.”

This is a sto­ry of friend­ship and sis­ter­hood. Faced with the task of keep­ing the for­est safe for the peo­ple, Hiʻi­a­ka, accom­pa­nied by her friend Wahineʻō­maʻo, must decide how to chal­lenge the fear­some guardian mo’o, Panaʻewa.

In one of my favorite scenes, Hiʻi­a­ka seeks strength by look­ing up at the stars and remem­ber­ing the courage it took for her ances­tors to brave the vast Pacif­ic Ocean to set­tle in Hawaiʻi. This sim­ple pan­el con­veys such emo­tion in a deeply Hawai­ian way.

The small cast of char­ac­ters are total­ly like­able. They expe­ri­ence some fears and doubts, but ulti­mate­ly they find strength from with­in and from each oth­er. The bat­tle with Panaʻe­wa is scary, but the scene is not too intense for young readers.

As expect­ed in a children’s sto­ry, the heroes pre­vail, and the end is hope­ful. The last pan­el neat­ly ties up the sto­ry by reflect­ing the very first pan­el of the island below and the man­uokū fly­ing above.

I appre­ci­ate that the sto­ry is pre­sent­ed as a short (32 page) graph­ic nov­el. The for­mat with its thought­ful word choice and poet­ic devices is per­fect for its intend­ed audi­ence of begin­ning read­ers but also as a read aloud.

The illus­tra­tions are inten­tion­al­ly sparse. Kids can eas­i­ly get over­whelmed in tra­di­tion­al com­ic book style, but in this book, fran­tic, over­drawn pan­els are avoid­ed. Instead, the col­or­ful, pic­ture book-like illus­tra­tions con­vey both sto­ry and emo­tion appro­pri­ate for the intend­ed age group.

More than any­thing, I love the author’s authen­tic voice. Every­thing, from imagery – espe­cial­ly Pele’s skirt and lei, the voy­ag­ing canoe, the man­uokū seabird, the moʻo – to the select­ed words in ʻōle­lo Hawaiʻi feels pono. For tra­di­tion­al­ists in my com­mu­ni­ty, this sto­ry of Pele and Hiʻi­a­ka is respectful.

The bookʻs back mat­ter con­sists of help­ful resources, includ­ing writ­ing prompts, dis­cus­sion ques­tions, and a short glossary.

In her author’s note, Ahuliʻi writes, “I hope our ances­tors look on my telling with pride.”

I am sure they are.

Hiʻi­a­ka and Panae­wa, A Hawai­ian Graph­ic Leg­end
Writ­ten by Gabrielle Ahuliʻi. Illus­trat­ed by Sarah Demon­teverde
Pub­lished by Pic­ture Win­dow Books, 2023
ISBN: 9781484672907
Sug­gest­ed for ages 4 – 8

Learn about the author in our talk sto­ry inter­view with Gabrielle Ahuliʻi. To look up the def­i­n­i­tions of the Hawai­ian terms used in this post, please vis­it Nā Puke Wehewe­he.

Dis­claimer.

Lei and the Fire God­dess by Malia Mau­nakea is a rare gem in kid lit: an epic com­ing-of-age sto­ry writ­ten by a Native Hawai­ian author fea­tur­ing Native Hawai­ian characters.

The sto­ry intro­duces us to twelve year old Lei, with all the joy and snark­i­ness and inse­cu­ri­ty that are part of grow­ing up. It didn’t take long for me to get into the sto­ry. From the very moment she steps off that air­plane at Hilo air­port, Lei is a ful­ly devel­oped, ful­ly like­able character.

So are the sec­ondary char­ac­ters, espe­cial­ly Tūtū, ʻIlikea, Moʻo, Kama­puaʻa, and the for­mi­da­ble Pele. I won’t spoil it for you by reveal­ing too much. Just know that the char­ac­ters of Hawai­ian leg­ends come alive in the author’s vivid sto­ry­telling and are inte­gral to Lei’s grow­ing aware­ness and maturity.

There is so much I love about this book.

I loved Lei’s char­ac­ter arc, watch­ing her grow, fac­ing her fears, devis­ing solu­tions, and fac­ing the con­se­quences. The excit­ing major scenes — between Lei and Kama­puaʻa, between Pele and Poliʻahu, the holua sled race — grab the read­er and donʻt let go.

But even the qui­et moments, such as Lei vow­ing not to share the water­fall on social media and lat­er real­iz­ing why tele­scopes donʻt belong on Mau­nakea, speak vol­umes,  espe­cial­ly to ʻōi­wi readers.

I love how the lan­guage is geared to today’s audi­ence with­out being dis­mis­sive of the mem­o­ries and upbring­ing of the old­er read­ers the sto­ry might appeal to. The ʻōle­lo Hawaiʻi is not a trope but a real sto­ry­telling device. For exam­ple, Tūtūʻs “close the mouth” line in an ear­ly scene is such a Hawai­ian way of teach­ing and learning.

I loved what felt like inside jokes but are real­ly evi­dence of the author’s authen­tic voice: KTA, the tin roof, Iz’s song, li hing mui snacks, pid­gin. I love that the first hula that comes to Lei’s mind is the one we all learn as kids, Kahuli Aku. And I laughed out loud at the chap­ter titled “Ma-ke Die Dead.”

Now the ele­phant in the room. At first I was super ner­vous about Pele being a main char­ac­ter. Our kūpuna teach us to respect and revere her. There will always be tra­di­tion­al­ists who feel the Pele sto­ry should nev­er be retold in a mod­ern voice.

Yet, for me, more than any­thing, I love how cre­ative the sto­ry is. It’s respect­ful and authen­tic and adds to the Pele and Kama­puaʻa canon for today’s kids. Pele tru­ly sounds like the god­dess I grew up hear­ing about. That she becomes Lei’s fren­e­my is edgy and feels right. 

Kids’ books by lived experience/own voic­es authors are so impor­tant. I am Native Hawai­ian and grew up in the 1960s. There were no books – not one! – where the char­ac­ters looked like me, did the things I did as a kid, ate the foods I ate, or used the pid­gin I spoke. All kids deserve to see them­selves in chil­dren’s lit.

This is why books like Lei and the Fire God­dess are so impor­tant. It’s a beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten, rol­lick­ing excit­ing-scary-fun­ny sto­ry that kids every­where will love. For all these rea­sons, LEI is a must-read.

Lei and the Fire God­dess  
By Malia Mau­nakea   
Pen­guin Ran­dom House
2023
ISBN 9780593522035
Sug­gest­ed for ages 8 – 12

Maha­lo to Sier­ra Pregosin at Pen­guin Ran­dom House for access to the galley! 

Learn about author Malia Mau­nakea in our talk-sto­ry inter­view. To look up the def­i­n­i­tions of the Hawai­ian terms used in this post, please vis­it Wehewehe.org