Ohana Means Family [Paperback]

Join the family, or ohana, as they farm taro for poi to prepare for a traditional luau celebration with a poetic text in the style of The House That Jack Built. Now available in paperback.

This is the land that's never been sold, where work the hands, so wise and old, that reach through the water, clear and cold, into the mud to pick the taro to make the poi for our ohana's luau.

Acclaimed illustrator and animator Kenard Pak's light-filled, dramatic illustrations pair exquisitely with Ilima Loomis' text to celebrate Hawaiian land and culture. 

The backmatter includes a glossary of Hawaiian terms used, as well as an author's note.

An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Bank Street Best Childrens Book of the Year!
A Booklist Editor's Choice★ The importance of this native Hawaiian tradition is revealed through Loomis’ and Pak’s textual and visual re-creations. The wind, the rain, the sun, the 'land that has never been sold,' and the wise old hands that work the land show that family is one of many interconnected parts—plant, planet, human, the elements—each as important as the other. Pak’s lovely, stylized watercolors bring readers close enough to see droplets on the roots of the kalo and then zoom out to see the whole sun-kissed island. Loomis writes in a gentle rhyme that undulates like the elements she describes so that readers will soon be murmuring along in sync. . . . this book does an admirable job of honoring the culture without cliché. —Booklist