ratings from personal enjoyment]

Tabi po (2 stars)
Girl learns to be mindful of the mystical creatures around her, I guess. A little lackluster, but I enjoyed the art.

Pele and Poliahu: A Tale of Fire and Ice (1 star)
Boring.

The Dancing Princess (3 stars)
Loved the artwork! Some of the expressions were really funny.

The Night Marchers (3 stars)
Cute.

The Legend of Apolaki & Mayari (3.5ish stars)
I liked this one. Shame ‘ol girl had to lose her eye though, but let the message stand: don’t fight with your siblings.

Nanaue (3 stars)
This one was weird. Still, liked it tho xD Shark dude looked at a beautiful lady one time, and he was sold. Then he had to be a deadbeat for magical reasons. The story/folktale ended rather somber. Poor mama. Everyone looked beautiful in this story btw.

Thousand Eyes (1 stars)
Daughter tries to get her mom to see the benefits of technology instead of holding on to the traditional ways. I was a little confused at some parts.

The Story of Benito (4 stars)
I had fun with how goofy this story was. The artwork was so cute and cartoony, and Benito seemed like a sweetie. (view spoiler)

The Legend of the Coconut Tree (3 stars)
I particularly liked the inkwork in this one. That snake said, “back then you ain’t want me. Now, you all up on me.” Lol

The Turtle and the Lizard (3 stars)
How the Turtle got its shell.

Kapo’i and the Owl (3 stars)

The Tyrant has Horns (3.5)
Pretty dark.

The Ibalon Epic: A retelling of Baltog (3 stars)
Nothing wrong with a career change. c:

Left in the Canefields (2 stars)
Hmm. I think I like the meaning of this. Be careful who you follow.

The Alan and the Hunters (1 star)
What??? This one was bitter and gory.

The Hula Mano (2 stars)
Pretty. ( )

[ratings from personal enjoyment]

Tabi po (2 stars)
Girl learns to be mindful of the mystical creatures around her, I guess. A little lackluster, but I enjoyed the art.

Pele and Poliahu: A Tale of Fire and Ice (1 star)
Boring.

The Dancing Princess (3 stars)
Loved the artwork! Some of the expressions were really funny.

The Night Marchers (3 stars)
Cute.

The Legend of Apolaki & Mayari (3.5ish stars)
I liked this one. Shame ‘ol girl had to lose her eye though, but let the message stand: don’t fight with your siblings.

Nanaue (3 stars)
This one was weird. Still, liked it tho xD Shark dude looked at a beautiful lady one time, and he was sold. Then he had to be a deadbeat for magical reasons. The story/folktale ended rather somber. Poor mama. Everyone looked beautiful in this story btw.

Thousand Eyes (1 stars)
Daughter tries to get her mom to see the benefits of technology instead of holding on to the traditional ways. I was a little confused at some parts.

The Story of Benito (4 stars)
I had fun with how goofy this story was. The artwork was so cute and cartoony, and Benito seemed like a sweetie. I thought the Princess was about mess. Like, she was stalling the wedding, but maybe she was just forgetful?

The Legend of the Coconut Tree (3 stars)
I particularly liked the inkwork in this one. That snake said, “back then you ain’t want me. Now, you all up on me.” Lol

The Turtle and the Lizard (3 stars)
How the Turtle got its shell.

Kapo’i and the Owl (3 stars)

The Tyrant has Horns (3.5)
Pretty dark.

The Ibalon Epic: A retelling of Baltog (3 stars)
Nothing wrong with a career change. c:

Left in the Canefields (2 stars)
Hmm. I think I like the meaning of this. Be careful who you follow.

The Alan and the Hunters (1 star)
What??? This one was bitter and gory.

The Hula Mano (2 stars)
Pretty. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/E-qcXsGxEPw

Enjoy! ( )

There are some real stand-out entries in this anthology of short stories that mix traditional adaptations of Hawaiian and Filipino folktales with some more contemporary or artistic approaches. There are some clunkers in the bunch that clunk really, really hard too, but I enjoyed it overall.

My biggest problems with the book are editorial ones. First, I think it would have been better to group the stories by region so the reader could start to get a feel for the area and how the folktales are connected. Instead, they mostly alternated Philippines after Hawaii after Philippines throughout, and didn't even mark the region on the individual stories so I had to constantly flip back to the table of contents to verify where the tale originated. Second, despite the cover claiming this work covers Oceania, all but one story was labeled either Hawaii or Philippines, and that story is labeled Fiji in the table of contents though the story itself says it is set in Tahiti, and I ain't an expert, but I'm pretty sure Fiji and Tahiti are not the same thing. And despite New Zealand being mentioned on the back cover, none of the stories I saw seemed to be set there. Third, one of the main points of this work is to give English readers exposure to these cultures, but two of the stories are presented untranslated -- one presented like an activity to work out yourself with what appears to be a very incomplete translation key, and which, based on the goofy and unappealing art of the story, I had little motivation to follow through on. Finally, the printing in my copy wasn't squared up properly, cutting off the bottom half of all the page numbers and some of the footnotes.

There is some good stuff here, but I wish more care had been given to it. ( )