Book review: “Finding Home, a Hawaiian Petrel’s Journey”
By Caren Loebel-Fried, bird conservation artist and author (carenloebelfried@gmail.com)
‘Ua‘u, Hawaiian Petrels, fly both night and day, powered by the wind. Soaring huge distances effortlessly, they even sleep on the wing, guided by smell and an inner magnetic map. The only time their webbed feet touch land is once a year when they meet their life mate at their burrow and together raise one chick. For the last 60 million years, ‘ua‘u have made a living off the ocean and nested on remote islands, far from predators. There used to be so many seabirds breeding in the Hawaiian Islands, it was said that their return from the sea to their colonies every evening would darken the sky, and their guano washed down from the mountaintops, nourishing the land and offshore coral reefs. But since the arrival of humans, ‘ua‘u numbers have plummeted to near extinction.
Caren Loebel-Fried tells the story of the ‘ua‘u, the Hawaiian Petrel, and the people working to save them in her new, fully illustrated book, “Finding Home, a Hawaiian Petrel’s Journey”, published by University of Hawai‘i Press. Caren’s extensive research brought her to many ‘ua‘u people and colonies across the Hawaiian Islands. Her fieldwork and visits included Rachel Sprague at the Hi’i Colony in Lāna‘i Hale; Pacific Rim Conservation and partners seabird translocation project at Nihokū at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, Kaua‘i; Jay Penniman and the Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project team at Haleakalā; and Charlotte Forbes-Perry for several ‘ua‘u surveys, helicoptering to camp high up Mauna Loa at colonies within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, one season along with Michelle Reynolds and Slater the detector dog.
In “Finding Home, a Hawaiian Petrel’s Journey”, readers experience Caren’s adventures through the story of Makani Kealoha Morton. Makani adores ‘ua‘u and grows up marveling at the seabird’s magical evening sky-dance and murmurs from their underground burrows. Makani’s biologist mom and her team devise a plan to save the seabirds. Ten ‘ua‘u chicks are translocated from their mountain burrows and raised in artificial burrows within a predator exclusion fence at Nihokū, and the specific details of their care are woven into the story. When the chicks start to leave for the sea one by one, Makani’s favorite chick is very late to fledge. Makani worries: Will this young petrel survive at sea? Will she return to the refuge to raise her own young? Will the plan to save the ‘ua‘u work? As Makani grows over the years, so does the seabird translocation project at Nihokū, along with the hope it carries for the future of the ‘ua‘u. By the story’s end, with the fear of the project failing, Makani finds her own way to make a difference for the seabirds she loves so dearly.
“Finding Home, a Hawaiian Petrel’s Journey” is fully illustrated with Caren Loebel-Fried’s signature hand-colored block prints, in addition to her drawings, and maps. Following the story, an in-depth back section provides scientific facts about the habitat and lifestyle of ‘ua‘u, and their connection to Hawaiian culture and history. The book’s middle-grade content includes place-based learning that incorporates natural science, wildlife conservation biology, literature, and art. Appealing to all ages, this hopeful, empowering story brings awareness to the threats humans have brought upon seabirds, and provides many ways that we can all help them.
Caren Loebel-Fried is an award-winning author and artist from Volcano, Hawai‘i. Birds, conservation, and the natural world are the foundations for her work. Caren has created nine storybooks to date, including “A Perfect Day for an Albatross”, “Manu, the Boy Who Loved Birds”, and “Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits”, and has worked with teachers to create educational guides for her books for schools and at-home learning. Caren’s books have received the American Folklore Society’s Aesop Prize for Children’s Folklore, the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, and the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association’s Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards for Excellence. Her commissions for iconic and educational art include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Kīlauea Point Natural History Association, Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, Friends of Hanauma Bay, and private collectors. Art from her latest book, “Finding Home, A Hawaiian Petrel’s Journey”, was acquired by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts for their “Art in Public Places” program. Caren’s love of seabirds is fueled by fieldwork on Midway Atoll with the albatross census team, and research of the ‘ua‘u, Hawaiian petrel, and other seabirds on their breeding grounds throughout the Hawaiian Islands. With art and stories, Caren aims to bring science to communities and people of all ages, in the hope that when people make connections to wildlife and the natural world, they will want to help care for it.
Published by University of Hawai‘i Press, “Finding Home, a Hawaiian Petrel’s Journey” is a 120-page hardback with full-color illustrations throughout and retails for $19.99. Books will be generally available at book retailers nationwide or can be ordered directly from University of Hawai‘i Press: 2840 Kolowalu Street, Honolulu, HI 96822 by email (uhpbooks@hawaii.edu) or online (https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/).
