‘Honey Girl’ shares tale of teen angst, pluck and discovery
In classic teen lit from "The Catcher in the Rye" to "The Hunger Games," you have a narrator — a smart, vulnerable outsider — who keeps bullies and adolescent angst at bay with wisecracks, arrows and wits. Faced with a cruel, snobbish social scene, Nani Nuuhiwa, the 15-year-old narrator of Lisa Freeman’s "Honey Girl," summons her late dad’s stash of Maui Wowie, a doll filled with his ashes, a thermos of his vodka-spiked breakfast drink and her own Hawaiian pride. This funny yet gripping page-turner, the first novel by the daughter of "Hawaii Five-O" creator Leonard Freeman, captivates the reader through Nani’s honest, confessional, sassy and utterly engaging voice.
"Honey Girl," by Lisa Freeman
(Sky Pony Press, $16.99) |
Nani sounds contemporary although her story is set in 1972. Nixon is running against McGovern and the original "Five-O" is on TV. After her Hawaiian father’s sudden death, Nani’s mother moves them to Southern California. Having just morphed from a chubby, "kind of ugly smarty pants kid who skipped first grade" to tall and lean, Nani has two goals: to scatter her dad’s ashes in the ocean without her mother’s knowledge and to re-create herself. Specifically, she aims to become the first Hawaiian "honey girl" on the local beach scene.
"Only losers like my mom end up alone," Nani reflects. Her Jesus-freak blond mom is trying to decode the lyrics to "American Pie." Mom also sells Dad’s bar, a popular Honolulu hangout where musicians like Kui Lee got their start, to Uncle Mike, a developer said to be "in the pocket of the Big Five" who has "Kahuna" emblazoned on his mailbox. (Another calabash uncle, who gave her his wraparound shades, is Don Ho.)
Nani runs afoul of California local chauvinism at State Beach, where surfers line up in the waves and the clique of "it" girls line up on the sand like "cookies cooling on a rack." In her puka shell necklace, long hair and crocheted bikini, brown-skinned Nani thinks she’s cool until the girls taunt her: "Hey, Five-O."
What complicates things is that, while Nani wants to win a trophy surfer boy, she’s also attracted to girls. Either way, she’s got to get accepted by the group, first.
She channels her back-home mentor Annie, muse of big-wave surfers. Like the sexist and homophobic surf culture of the time, Annie’s rules are as retro as if the ’60s never happened. Don’t talk politics, as "surfers hate brainy girls." Also, "Never wear the same color as someone already on the beach," "It’s better to die than to fart or barf," "Never cut your hair," "Girls don’t fight with girls," and "Be sincere." Most of these rules will be broken by various girls during the course of the book.
Girls don’t surf in Annie’s rules or at State Beach. "And what about Margo Oberg, the blond girl who surfs Makaha?" Nani thinks (the author regrettably overlooks Rell Sunn). This frustrates Nani, an accomplished waterwoman whose skills will serve her well in a climactic scene. As a child, she used to fantasize about getting married to Gerry Lopez, king of Pipeline, but she also fantasizes over Playboy centerfolds.
Nani finds herself falling in love with both a rich blond surfer dude who goes to Harvard (one of the rare moments in the book when the reader has to consciously suspend disbelief) and the buxom alpha cool girl on the beach.
In search of her sexual identity, Nani finds her own identity as an individual. She rewrites the rules, putting "Safety before beauty," grows kinder to her mother and learns what true friendship is.
Packed with action, attitude and empathy, "Honey Girl" should become a YA classic.
Review by Mindy Pennybacker, Star-Advertiser
Secret Easter Bunny hops the isles
“The Littlest Bunny in Hawaii: An Easter Adventure” (Sourcebooks, $9.99), by Lily Jacobs, tells the tale of May and Joe, a couple of children who move to Hawaii and are in search of adventure. It all begins with a visit to the pet shop, where they find their new pet bunny, Flop.
Flop, secretly the Easter Bunny, embarks on a quest to deliver “nine million and twenty” eggs across the islands. He dons his red flying cap and goggles, and hops into a hot-air balloon that glides over familiar areas like Pu‘u Ualaka‘a State Park and the Hawaii State Library.
Adorable illustrations by Robert Dunn include common landmarks like the King Kamehameha statue, Aloha Tower and Iolani Palace.
Kids can search for colorful Easter eggs hidden throughout the book.
Nancy Arcayna, Star-Advertiser
