Twelve-year-old Margaret Kaupuni had just danced before Honolulu's 1934 May Queen. As she left the steps a health inspector grabbed her wrist. "You are a leper, child, and you will come with me." At the leper receiving station she was positively diagnosed and sent to Kalaupapa, the leprosy settlement on Molokai. On that lonely prison island for thirty-four years, Margaret watched her dreams die and her own body scar and shrink from the disease. There her twenty-two-year-old sister, another patient, died in the pounding surf. There, over the decades, Margaret watched her three afflicted husbands die. There her newborn children were taken from her arms and shipped to foster homes on Oahu. There she dressed the sores of the living and closed the eyes of the deformed victims of a disease the ancient Egyptians called "death before death." Then in 1969, her leprosy arrested at long last, Margaret was released from Molokai and moved into a small one room apartment in the high rise slums of Honolulu. Once again surrounded by poverty and despair Margaret dreamed a new dream. She would spend the rest of her life caring for her fellow outcasts in the Oahu Towers. This is the inspiring true story of Margaret the Miracle of Molokai who faced suffering most of us can't even imagine however instead of giving way to grief and anger Margaret spent the rest of her life relieving the suffering of others. Let Margaret's story give you strength to face your own suffering and at the same time plant a new dream in your heart.

Saint Damien of Molokai is the riveting account of how a humble Congregation of the Sacred Hearts priest found a vocation in caring for lepers that led him to his canonization in October 2009. Hawaii normally brings idyllic scenes of blue skies and white beaches to mind. But Hell invaded Paradise when the incurable disease leprosy was discovered there. An 1865 law segregated lepers by forcibly exiling individuals--even children--to the island of Molokai. It was onto these forlorn shores that Father Damien de Veuster stepped in the spring of 1873. In an age in which an increasing number of people suffer their own personal exile on account of illness, handicap, or emotional distress, the shining example of Father Damien shows the true power of one person and how, when anchored in God's love, one person can impact the world--even among the horrors of decay and slow death. In so doing, he brought hope to the hopeless, ironically losing his own life for serving theirs.

NOW A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY: USA Today • BookRiot • BookBub • LibraryReads • OC Register • Never Ending Voyage The highly anticipated sequel to Alan Brennert’s acclaimed book club favorite, and national bestseller, Moloka'i "A novel of illumination and affection." —USA Today Alan Brennert’s beloved novel Moloka'i, currently has over 600,000 copies in print. This companion tale tells the story of Ruth, the daughter that Rachel Kalama—quarantined for most of her life at the isolated leprosy settlement of Kalaupapa—was forced to give up at birth. The book follows young Ruth from her arrival at the Kapi'olani Home for Girls in Honolulu, to her adoption by a Japanese couple who raise her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her marriage and unjust internment at Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II—and then, after the war, to the life-altering day when she receives a letter from a woman who says she is Ruth’s birth mother, Rachel. Daughter of Moloka'i expands upon Ruth and Rachel’s 22-year relationship, only hinted at in Moloka'i. It’s a richly emotional tale of two women—different in some ways, similar in others—who never expected to meet, much less come to love, one another. And for Ruth it is a story of discovery, the unfolding of a past she knew nothing about. Told in vivid, evocative prose that conjures up the beauty and history of both Hawaiian and Japanese cultures, it’s the powerful and poignant tale that readers of Moloka'i have been awaiting for fifteen years.

In the bestselling tradition of In the Heart of the Sea, The Colony, “an impressively researched” (Rocky Mountain News) account of the history of America’s only leper colony located on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, is “an utterly engrossing look at a heartbreaking chapter” (Booklist) in American history and a moving tale of the extraordinary people who endured it. Beginning in 1866 and continuing for over a century, more than eight thousand people suspected of having leprosy were forcibly exiled to the Hawaiian island of Molokai -- the longest and deadliest instance of medical segregation in American history. Torn from their homes and families, these men, women, and children were loaded into shipboard cattle stalls and abandoned in a lawless place where brutality held sway. Many did not have leprosy, and many who did were not contagious, yet all were ensnared in a shared nightmare. Here, for the first time, John Tayman reveals the complete history of the Molokai settlement and its unforgettable inhabitants. It's an epic of ruthless manhunts, thrilling escapes, bizarre medical experiments, and tragic, irreversible error. Carefully researched and masterfully told, The Colony is a searing tale of individual bravery and extraordinary survival, and stands as a testament to the power of faith, compassion, and the human spirit.

This book provides a lot of information on the importance of fishing in ancient Hawaiian society. It includes drawings of fish with both Hawaiian and scientific names.

Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in idyllic Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family, and dreams of seeing the far-off lands that her father, a merchant seaman, often visits. But at the age of seven, Rachel and her dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy. Forcibly removed from her family, she is sent to Kalaupapa, the isolated leper colony on the island of Moloka'i. In her exile she finds a family of friends to replace the family she's lost: a native healer, Haleola, who becomes her adopted "auntie" and makes Rachel aware of the rich culture and mythology of her people; Sister Mary Catherine Voorhies, one of the Franciscan sisters who care for young girls at Kalaupapa; and the beautiful, worldly Leilani, who harbors a surprising secret. At Kalaupapa she also meets the man she will one day marry. True to historical accounts, Moloka'i is the story of an extraordinary human drama, the full scope and pathos of which has never been told before in fiction. But Rachel's life, though shadowed by disease, isolation, and tragedy, is also one of joy, courage, and dignity. This is a story about life, not death; hope, not despair. It is not about the failings of flesh, but the strength of the human spirit.

Ancient Hawaiians lived in a world where all of nature was alive with the spirits of their ancestors. These aumakua have lived on through the ages as family guardians and take on many natural forms, thus linking many Hawaiians to the animals, plants, and natural phenomena of their island home. Individuals have a reciprocal relationship with their guardian spirits and offer worship and sacrifice in return for protection, inspiration, and guidance. Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits is told in words and pictures by award-winning artist Caren Loebel-Fried. The ancient legends are brought to life in sixty beautiful block prints, many vibrantly colored, and narrated in a lively "read-aloud" style, just as storytellers of old may have told them hundreds of years ago. Notes are included, reflecting the careful and extensive research done for this volume at the Bishop Museum Library and Archives in Honolulu and at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. A short section on the process of creating the block prints that illustrate the book is also included. The matching poster of "A Chance Meeting with the Iiwi" measures 22 x 28 inches.