cover image Nunes: To Find the Way

Nunes: To Find the Way

Susan Nunes. University of Hawaii Press, $14.99 (48pp) ISBN 978-0-8248-1376-5

Teva, a Tahitian boy, travels with his navigating grandfather and a group of settlers to Hawaii in this significant if flawed story. Nunes ( Tiddalick the Frog ) draws on the latest research to re-create the experiences of the Polynesian pioneers who crossed the Pacific hundreds of years ago, guided only by the stars. During the arduous journey, Teva helps to bail out the ship and learns about the waves and the stars. The voyagers triumph, though the elevated prose does not: ``Through his tears, Teva looked up at his grandfather. How strong the wayfinder, how sure his knowledge. One day he, Teva, would know his grandfather's sky.'' In addition to its excessive length, the book is also visually uneven: Gray's somewhat restrained watercolors do little more than unobtrusively accompany the text, and the awkward layout creates barren, unillustrated stretches. Still, the story itself is a worthwhile counterweight to the flux of Columbiana, and may find a place in many multicultural collections. Ages 6-10. (Sept.)