ONE SHARK, NO SWIM by Lehua Parker BLOG TOUR

We feel privileged to welcome to our blog, Lehua Parker, whose new book ONE SHARK, NO WATER is now available. Like us, many of you have been waiting for it to appear after reading the first book, ONE BOY, NO WATER.

ONE SHARK, NO SWIM continues raise and questions about its characters and the slowly unveiling mysteries that surround Zadar. Of course, I had already connected with Zadar in the first book, so was anxious to see where his adventures led him.

The Hawaiian world Lehua Parker portrays--one lived in not just visited--is rich in color, tradition  and culture. And adventure. As I read both books, I found hints and references to Hawaiian legends, myths and traditions that fascinated me. I had to ask her to explain some of those to us.

Thanks for satisfying our curiosity, Lehua!

Aloha Berk and Andy! Thanks for letting me stop by your blog. You asked about some of the

Hawaiian legends, myths, and traditions that are part of the Niuhi Shark Saga.

In book 1, One Boy, No Water, readers are introduced to the idea that there is another reality right under our noses. Ancient Hawaiians believed that everything was connected in ways modern science can’t quantify, but still very concrete—there were reasons you didn’t whistle in the dark, answer when someone you didn’t know called your name in a rainforest, or slept with your feet toward the door. In the series I ran with the idea that many of the gods, goddess, aumakua, and other spiritual beings that were a part of old Hawaii were still around.

As a kid growing up in the ocean these stories fascinated me.

Sharks were a big part of Hawaiian culture and lore. Sharks could be protectors, benefactors, guardians—or man-eating terrors. The Hawaiian language is very lyrical and symbolic and there are many historical records that talk about chiefs with a shark-like appetite for war. But beyond the poetry are legends and myths about sharks and humans living together, about women having shark babies that return to the sea, sharks that return to land to eat the dead, and about sharks that can appear as men.

The idea for the series began with a lot of what ifs. What if a tourist came to Hawaii and caught the eye of a shark in the form of a woman? What if she had twins, a boy and a girl, and had to hide the boy with a human family? What if a boy grew up not knowing he was really a shark? What if no one knew he was a shark? There were so many ways to tell this tale that it just rattled around in my brain for decades until one day Zader and his friends started talking about building a sled out of cardboard, and poof, I found my way into the story.

Once I knew I was writing a MG/YA story, I looked for ways to incorporate the unseen in daily life. In One Boy, No Water, there’s a side plot where Uncle Kahana is cooking a big dinner on Respite Island for Santa and the gang Christmas Day. Uncle Kahana also leaves food under bushes on lauhala mats which makes Zader curious. In book 2, One Shark, No Swim, it becomes clear when pebbles are thrown at windows and when hidden Survivor fans snicker from the bushes that menehunes, Hawaii’s little people, are around.

Ti leaves also play a part in the story and it’s here that I do a disservice to traditional Hawaiian beliefs. Anciently ti plants were used to mark sacred places, bind wounds, wrap offerings, create clothing, and things of that nature. It’s an important plant, but there’s nothing mystical about it. After western contact much of Hawaiian culture and tradition was blurred, re-written, or simply forgotten. People began to confuse the plant’s usefulness with mana or power itself. While I tried to emphasize that it’s the symbolism of the ti leaf that’s important, I think kids could easily misunderstand and think the ti plant is magical.

Less obvious instances of Hawaiian culture in the series are the ideas that our ancestors still watch over us, that prayer and gratitude and are an important part of everyday life, and that family and community are pillars of strength and support. For the most part, the people in the series are generous with their time, talents, and material possessions and that’s definitely a corner-stone of island living.

Thanks, Berk and Andy, for the opportunity to talk a little about the Niuhi Shark Saga. Books one and two, One Boy, No Water and One Shark, No Swim, are published by Jolly Fish Press and available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Book 3, tentatively titled One Fight, No Fist, will be coming out fall 2014.

THANKS LEHUA!

What a fun person Lehua is! We are fellow authors at Jolly Fish Press and believe me, she can be the life of the party. She is also an extremely talented author. Read her books and you'll agree totally.


Lehua Parker is originally from Hawaii and a graduate of The Kamehameha Schools and Brigham Young University. In addition to writing award-winning short fiction, poetry, and plays, she is the author of the Pacific literature MG/YA series the Niuhi Shark Saga published by Jolly Fish Press. One Boy, No Water and One Shark, No Swim are available now. Book 3, One Fight, No Fist will be published in 2014.

So far Lehua has been a live television director, a school teacher, a courseware manager, an instructional designer, a sports coach, a theater critic, a SCUBA instructor, a playwright, a web designer, a book editor, a mother, and a wife. She currently lives in Utah with her husband, two children, three cats, two dogs, six horses, and assorted chickens. During the snowy Utah winters she dreams about the beach.

To Connect with Lehua Parker, click the links below: 

Blog & Free Short Stories 

All things Niuhi Shark Saga

Facebook

Goodreads

Pinterest
Twitter: @Lehua Parker

Email: AuntyLehua@LehuaParker.com

You will want to read both these books! Excellent for middle grade readers as well as all ages. I'm far removed from being middle grade age, but I enjoyed them and was sorry to  leave the magical Hawaiian world I discovered in their pages. That's why I love sequels.

If you want to know what we think of ONE BOY, NO WATER, check here: REVIEW

ONE BOY, NO WATER

11 year old Alexander Kaonakai Westin—Zader for short—is allergic to water. One drop on his skin sears like white-hot lava. Too bad a lifetime of carrying an umbrella and staying away from the beach isn’t the answer, especially when his popular almost twin brother Jay looks destined to become the next Hawaiian surfing sensation.

But avoiding water is just the tip of Zader’s troubles. Eating raw seafood and rare meat gives him strange dreams about a young girl in a red cape and nightmares about a man with too many teeth. There’s also the school bullies who want to make Zader their personal punching bag, the pressure of getting into Ridgemont Academy, and the mysterious yearly presents from his birth family that nobody talks about.

It’s enough to drive Zader crazy, especially when he suspects old Uncle Kahana and ‘Ilima know a secret that explains his unusual biological quirks. After all, they were the ones who found him newborn and abandoned on a reef and brought him to the Westins to adopt. Uncle Kahana swears Zader is ‘ohana—family—by blood as well as adoption.  Too bad he’s not saying more.

When Jay quits surfing after a shark scare, Zader decides it’s time to stop hiding in the shadows and start searching for answers.

Growing up adopted in Hawai‘i just got a little weirder.

ONE BOY, NO WATER can be found on AMAZON   BARNES & NOBLE & GOODREADS

 We have read and thoroughly enjoyed ONE SHARK, NO SWIM.  It was nice to be back in Zadar's world.


ONE SHARK, NO SWIM

There’s something bugging adopted Zader Westin, something more troubling than his water allergies where one drop on his skin burns like hot lava. It’s bigger than his new obsession with knives, designing the new murals for the pavilion with Mr. Halpert, or dealing with Char Siu’s Lauele Girlz scotch tape makeover. Zader can’t stop thinking about a dream, the dream that might not have been a dream where Lē‘ia called him brother then jumped into the ocean and turned into a shark.

Zader’s got a lot of questions, not the least being why he’s hungry all the time, restless at night, and why he feels a constant itch on the back of his neck. It’s making him feel like teri chicken on a pūpū platter, but Zader doesn’t want to think about chicken, not with his growing compulsion to slip it down his throat—raw.

With Jay busy at surf camp and Uncle Kahana pretending nothing’s happening, Zader’s left alone to figure things out, including why someone—something—is stalking him before it’s too late.

Summer in Lauele Town, Hawaii just got a little more interesting.

Find ONE SHARK, NO SWIM  at AMAZON  BARNES & NOBLE and GOODREADS

 

A LITTLE MEANDER INTO HAWAII WITH LEHUA PARKER

       Here in Colorado,  leaves are off the trees, snow is on the ground, and the air is definitely nippy.  It's time to take a break and talk warm, breezy, and verdant Hawaii!  We're excited to welcome to our blog Lehua Parker, author of One Boy, No Water.  She also answers to "Aunty Lehua".


If you want to know what we think of this fine book, read our blog post last Friday, November 9th.

Aloha, Berk and Andy! Thanks for letting me drop by to answer a few of your questions about my MG/YA novel One Boy, No Water, book one in the Niuhi Shark Saga. It’s available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon in hardback, trade paperback, and ebook.

What inspired you to write One Boy, No Water?

There’s an image burned in my brain from a movie I saw when I was seven years old, sprawled on the cool, polished cement floor in Kahului Elementary’s cafeteria.  It was from the Legends of Hawaii series and was about villagers who kept disappearing and it was feared they were eaten by a large shark. There’s a moment when they rip the cloak off the shoulders of a young man to reveal a gaping shark’s mouth where his back should be! Since then I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the idea that his parents kept this secret hidden his entire life and that he was eating people he knew. All the answers to the why, how, and what if questions I asked myself eventually turned into the Niuhi Shark Saga.

 Were any of the characters and situations drawn from your own life?

Yes, a lot of them are! While I never had an allergy to water, I did experience a lot of the bullying Zader does, particularly when I was in elementary school and the only blonde, blue-eyed kid in the school district. Not class, school district, including all the faculty and staff.  I wished I had a brother like Jay or a friend like Char Siu or someone like Uncle Kahana to guide me through it all.  Most of the things Zader and his friends do, I also did as a kid, from surfing to kite flying to dancing hula.  In the book, there’s a lot of pressure on sixth graders to get into a good private school.  That’s also real; I went through the same thing.  Fortunately, like Zader I had a teacher, Mr. Waters, who went out of his way to make sure his part of my private school applications were stellar.  Getting into The Kamehameha Schools for seventh grade changed my life, much like getting into Ridgemont will change Zader’s.

 

Where does the Niuhi Shark legend come from?

Throughout the Pacific there are stories about shape shifters who can change from human form to something else like a tree, molten lava, a gust of wind, or a shark.  While not specifically based on any one legend, the series does echo some of these ideas.  In Hawaiian, the word niuhi means ‘a shark large enough to eat a human,’ and is usually translated as ‘large tiger shark.’  I took the word and created a people who are sharks that can appear as human.  That’s key.  They are not humans shifting into sharks; they are sharks masquerading as humans on land.

 

Why did you have many of your characters speak in Hawaiian Pidgin English?  What difficulties did that present?

In Hawaii, language can immediately identify you as an insider or an outsider.  As a kid on Maui, everyone spoke a heavy one-generation-from-the-sugar-plantation version of Pidgin, including the teachers.  The only time I spoke standard English was at home.  Growing up, Pidgin was the language of friendships and secrets. If you travel to Hawaii as a tourist, chances are you won’t hear anything but proper English and a phrase or two in Hawaiian.  Speaking Pidgin—or even just having a bit of accent in your English—instantly identifies you as belonging.  Most Pidgin speakers can spot another speaker in an instant, even if the person talking hasn’t lived in Hawaii for decades.  The way my characters talk in One Boy, No Water is authentic to the way locals talk in Hawaii when they are among friends and family.

Of course, using Pidgin dialogue and still conveying what’s going on to non-Pidgin speaking kids was tough. Fortunately, since kids are constantly acquiring new vocabulary, they’re pretty adept at figuring out meaning from context.  I consciously chose to use a version of Pidgin that’s more typically spoken today, more heavily based in English that what I spoke on Maui, and cheated a little by using standard English spelling which often doesn’t mirror how Pidgin sounds.  However, to keep it real I tried to maintain Pidgin’s rhythms and grammar, with the hope that  non-Pidgin readers get the gist of “more better we go library later; the waves stay pumping now,” and Pidgin speakers reading the same words hear “mo’bettah we go li’barry latahs, da waves stay pumpin’ now” in their heads.  As a last resort, I wrote a glossary and included it in the back of the book.

What is one event in your book that was most riveting to you and why?

There’s scene in the book where Uncle Kahana tells the story of a shark attack he witnessed as a child from a toro boat.  The inspiration for that scene came from an infamous fatal shark attack that happened off Lanikai beach in 1958.  Six boys ranging from 9-15 years old were resting on surfboards and air mattresses in choppy water and had a small toro boat anchored nearby.  A large tiger shark estimated between 15 and 25 feet silently bit the leg off one of the boys.  None of the other kids realized it until he started drifting away from the group.  As a teenager I heard this story and its unpublished details from people who had been there. This beach was literally my Dad’s backyard, these were his friends, and the death of Billy Weaver affected him and the rest of Hawaii profoundly for decades.

In the book I tried to capture the horror of a Jaws-sized shark silently and efficiently killing and what I imagined it must have been like for a kid in the toro boat off  Lanikai beach to watch people he cared about choosing to stay in the water where a gigantic shark was circling in order to save their friend. I combined these images with the idea that the shark knew what it was doing and that the whole incident could have been avoided if people had only followed the ancient kapu or fishing restrictions.  The scene is chilling to me on many levels, and I hope it rivets readers as well.

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

That it’s impossible to write anything well unless you clearly define your audience.  One Boy, No Water and the Niuhi Shark Saga started out as an adult novel called Like One Fish Out of Water. It ballooned over the years, in fits and starts, was way too complicated and meandering, and never went anywhere until I made some concrete decisions: 1) how I was going to handle Pidgin; 2) that I was telling the story to kids; 3) that the kids I wanted to excite about the story were specifically those who didn’t like to read because they’d never read a book with characters who lived and talked like they do.  Once those things were decided, it all fell into place.

Taken on Maui during Washburn family vacation 2005!

 

Many thanks, Lehua, for sharing a little of Hawaii--and yourself--with us today.  

Or perhaps we should say, "MAHALO!"

 I'm feeling warmer, already.  

 

A little Background on our Guest:

Lehua Parker is originally from Hawaii and a graduate of The Kamehameha Schools and Brigham Young University. So far she has been a live television director, a school teacher, a courseware manager, an instructional designer, a sports coach, a theater critic, a SCUBA instructor, a poet, a web designer, a mother, and a wife. Her debut novel, One Boy, No Water is the first book in her MG/YA series the Niuhi Shark Saga. She currently lives in Utah with her husband, two children, four cats, two dogs, six horses, and assorted chickens. During the snowy Utah winters she dreams about the beach.

Here's how you can connect with her.  Do it.  You'll enjoy every minute.

Facebook author page: www.facebook.com/LehuaParker

Blog: www.LehuaParker.com

Twitter: @LehuaParker

Goodreads: Lehua Parker