Pulelehua and Mamaki

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday marks the end of a long week and is the day to relax, take it easy, and embrace the promised leisure of the weekend. As fun as it is to hit the waves at the beach, sometimes curling up with a nice book can be just as pleasurable, if not an easier way, to fill up a lazy afternoon, especially when you have one or more toddlers in tow.

Surprisingly, in Honolulu alone, there are more than a dozen or so locally owned publishing houses that produce everything from tourist publications to local fiction. To acknowledge these brave efforts of regional publishing, Little Paper Hen will feature a Hawaii children's book every week.

Our first Aloha Friday book comes from an imprint of Bishop Museum Press, the publisher that is indeed linked to that famous museum. True to their mission, they specialize in books about Hawaiian culture, literature, history, and all things Hawaiiana.

Pulelehua and Mamaki is at once many things: a story, a lesson, a gentle message that mother nature is intertwined harmoniously and perfectly.

Though it tells the familiar tale of a caterpillar who turns into a butterfly, this book goes deeper by starring the Kamehameha Butterfly and the Mamaki tree, two species that are endemic to Hawaii. Because they are found nowhere else on earth, the account of Pulelehua the caterpillar's journey from egg to butterfly, and the role Mamaki the tree takes as his protector, is all the more metaphorical of the larger story about mother nature's challenge to thrive.

Janice Crowl, local writer and resident, who shares her passion for gardening and botany with children through her story books, captures the sentimentality we should all feel towards nature and her kingdom. It is marvelous and complex, but also very fragile. Books like hers inspire us to take a mindful look at the natural world that surrounds us.

The illustrations are beautifully done by local native Hawaiian artist, Harinani Orme, whose signature style has always been her portraiture of Hawaiian aumakua (family gods) and folklore characters. Here, she creates a microcosmic world that seems magical but is indeed very real, and can continue to survive, if we as humans do our part to be good stewards of mother nature.

This wonderful book offers a little bit of fable, culture, and natural science, making it a very valuable addition to your child's collection. At the end, there is a short section that presents a Hawaiian glossary, a gardening tutorial, botanical facts as well as an exquisite diagram of the Kamehameha Butterfly's life cycle.

Pulelehua and Mamaki rightly won the 2010 Hawai'i Book Publishers Association Award for Excellence in Children's Literature at the Ka Palapala Po'okela Awards, which means many others love this book too.

Pelelehua and Mamaki
words by Janice Crowl
pictures by Harinani Orme
© 2009 Kamahoi Press