Kaho'olawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People

Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature Pasifika Picture Book Winner

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

School Library Journal Best Books 2025

New York Public Library Best Books for Kids 2025

Orbis Pictus Recommended Reading List

Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Books of the Year 2025

*"An incredible, brilliantly told story of persistence, advocacy, and love."--starred, Kirkus Reviews*

"A stunningly beautiful book that tells the story of destruction, devastation, and resilience, of both the human and natural world. . . The artwork tells the story in dramatic, compelling, and beautiful ways. Together, text and art will engage readers from the first page."--starred, School Library Journal

In the middle of the great Pacific Ocean is a little island. Her name is Kanaloa Kaho'olawe.

Discover the story of an island sacred to Native Hawaiians. Beginning with her birth in a volcanic eruption, Kaho'olawe thrives surrounded by animals on land and in the sea. When Polynesian voyagers arrive and begin to raise their families there, the island is happy. As the years pass, invasive goats devastate the ecosystem, and during World War II and the decades that follow, the US military claims the island for target practice. Kaho'olawe is hurt. Yet activists never give up on the island, and they finally succeed in reclaiming her.

Kaho'olawe endures.

Author Kamalani Hurley and illustrator Harinani Orme present the remarkable story of the smallest Hawaiian island, encompassing loss and erasure, sacrifice and dedication, and ultimately restoration, highlighting hope, resilience, and aloha 'āina (deep love of the land).

The author has pledged 100 percent of her proceeds from sales of this book to the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana.**