Happy AANHPI Month! A guest post by Malia Maunakea

Happy AANHPI Month! This month kicks off a celebration of books featuring or by Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders. I am excited to shine a spotlight the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander portion of that lengthy acronym.

The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander family includes people across Polynesia, Melanasia, and Micronesia. We are all connected by the vast highway of ocean that our canoes traveled across long ago. Stories have been passed down orally for generations—epic legends of our ties to the earth, explanations of how things have come to be, and finding strength in our communities.

Now, a new generation of story tellers is taking to the written page and learning to navigate the world of publishing within the middle grade and young teen space. According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 2023 only 0.28% of children’s books traditionally published in the United States were authored by Pacific Islanders. Given this statistic, one can see how easy it might be for these stories to get lost on the shelves and left off of lists, so here are some recent stories (and sentiments) of Pacific Islander authors who write middle grade and young teen books.

Makiia Lucier’s Dragonfruit is her latest addition to the Pasifika landscape. Filled with seadragons, pirates, wishes and sea gods, it’s the perfect addition to any young teen’s reading list. When asked why she writes, Makiia says “There were no Pacific Islander characters in the books I read as a child. At the time, it did not occur to me to think, ‘this is not right, someone needs to do something. Forty years later, I am that someone. Dragonfruit is a book I’ve been thinking about writing for a very long time, and I’m delighted it’s finally out in the world.” Makiia Lucier is Micronesian, CHamorro from Guåhan (Guam) the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands.

Makiia’s sentiments reflect mine. When my son started reading middle grade books about Greek mythology, I searched for stories about our Hawaiian culture so he could learn the legends that I grew up with. When I couldn’t find any on the library shelf here in Colorado, I decided to write them myself to pass on and preserve the history under the guise of a fun, contemporary adventure. Lei and the Fire Goddess and the sequel, Lei and the Invisible Island are the result of this goal. They contain a blend of history, ecology, traditions, and oral and written lore, and are perfect for fans of Percy Jackson and Disney’s Moana. Trying to condense the essence of the islands into these books was a complete passion project and it is an honor to see them read across the nation by people both familiar and unfamiliar with the islands.

Another fun middle grade book written by a Native Hawaiian is Kristiana Kahakauwila’s Clairboyance. It is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection that tells a heartfelt coming of age story with a touch of magic that follows Clara as her life is turned upside down when she discovers she has boy-specific ESP abilities. Struggles with ex-best friends and debating whether or not to move to live with her dad in Arizona make this story easily relatable for kids all over.

Nowadays, there are more Native Hawaiians living off-island than there are in Hawaiʻi. It’s important to recognize that some of these people may not identify as strongly with their island roots. Their lived experiences enhance the ever evolving tapestry of our Pacific Island culture and family. This also influences the look that Pacific Island stories can take on, as they may not center around what readers come to expect.

Author Anna Lapera has heritage in both Hawaiʻi and Guatemala. Her book Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice is about twelve year old girl who wants two things: to get her period and to thwart her mom’s plan of taking her to her ancestral home of Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday—no islands in sight. Anna says, “I grew up more connected to the Latin American side, both culturally and linguistically. My main connection to Hawaii was through my grandfather, who told stories of growing up in Waimanalo. As an adult, I’ve yearned to build and rebuild that connection in meaningful ways, and books have created that bridge for me. That is the power of stories. Now, as a writer, my characters reflect the experience of kids who live within those multiple identities and how they dig deep into their family stories and heritage in order to step into their own power.”

As exciting as it is to see individual authors finding their power in the publishing realm, it is even more thrilling when an entire community is uplifted. At the 2024 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Huia, a Māori-owned independent publisher won the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year award for the Oceania region! They have published such middle grade books by PI authors as Amorangi and Millie’s Trip Through Time, Tāwhaki: The Decade of a Demigod, and Hine and the Tohunga Portal. It is wonderful to see Pacific Islanders in publishing recognized at a global level.

I would like to encourage everyone to read more Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander stories this AANHPI month. One way to join the fun is to head over to PacificIslanderBooks.org, where Keala Kendall, Manuia Heinrich, and Keala Netane have compiled a database of authors, illustrators, and other publishing professionals to help amplify and support the cultures. On their Instagram page, @PacificIslanderBooks, they’re running a Pacifika Readathon Challenge that will be highlighting Pacific Islander Literature during the month of May. Together we can enjoy and uplift the NH/PI in AANHPI.

Meet the author

Malia Maunakea is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) whose middle grade, Hawaiian-legend-filled story, Lei and the Fire Goddess, was featured on the Today show, chosen as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book by Children’s Book Council, named Book of the Year by the School Library Journal and Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature, and was a Young Adult Library Services Best Audiobook of the Year. The sequel, Lei and the Invisible Island, comes out June 2024. Her website is www.MaliaMaunakea.com and you can find her on Instagram at @maliamaunakea.

About Lei and the Invisible Island

An exciting follow-up to Lei and the Fire Goddess features a mysterious, invisible island, dangerous spirits, and a newcomer who does not need Lei’s help . . . or does she?

After saving her best friend and ancestral guardian, Kaipo, from Pele the Fire Goddess’s traps, and successfully preventing lava from destroying her Tūtū’s house, all Lei wants to do is take a nap. The only problem? Kaipo’s ʻaumakua pendant is missing, and without it, he will soon disintegrate . . . emotionally and physically.

So Lei, Kaipo, her favorite talking bat, Ilikea, and newcomer Kaukahi—a fiercely independent fashionista—set off on a journey to an invisible island where they hope to find Kaipo’s pendant. To get there, they’ll have to contend with sharks, jump over a rainbow, and literally float on clouds. And when they arrive? The crew realizes that the missing pendant is the least of their problems. For there are evil spirits on this island, and they’re out for blood.

In this exciting follow-up to LEI AND THE FIRE GODDESS, Malia Maunakea crafts a tale about friendship, family, culture, and what it means to forgive each other, and yourself.

ISBN-13: 9780593522059
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 06/04/2024
Series: Lei and the Legends #2
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

Filed under: Guest Post