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Reviewed by:
  • Healing Water: A Hawaiian Story
  • Karen Coats
Hostetter, Joyce Moyer; Healing Water: A Hawaiian Story;. Calkins Creek/ Boyds Mills, 2008; 217p ISBN 978-1-59078-514-0 $17.95 R Gr. 7-10

It's the late 1800s, and Pia relishes life playing in the environs of his native Hawai'i with his lifelong friend Kamaka, until the morning when his mother discovers the dreaded marks of leprosy on Pia's neck and shoulders. The tragedy of his disease is nothing compared to the pain of being abandoned by Kamaka, who stays away from the moment he hears that his friend has been afflicted. Pia's world is shattered by the anger he feels toward Kamaka, and he carries that anger with him as he is sent to the leprosy settlement on Moloka'i to live out his life without friends or family. His anger keeps him alive but turns him into a criminal, as he steals food and allows himself to be adopted by the local thug. Things become even more complicated when Kamaka arrives with his wife, another victim of the dreaded and little understood disease, and he seeks Pia's forgiveness for his behavior. For readers who've only ever imagined Hawai'i as a vacation paradise, this is a riveting look into its history and people during a dark period. Pia's perspective provides dimension to the values of native Hawaiians; he is distressed to find the qualities of family, sharing, and compassion largely absent in the leprosy village, and yet he finds those qualities strained to the point of breaking in himself. The portrait of Father Damien, the Belgian priest who dedicates his life to helping the villagers, is rendered so compassionately (and realistically) that it doesn't carry the taint of the stereotypical white man's rescue; instead, he reminds the people of the values they carry inside them already and draws them away from the despair and grief that have [End Page 388] temporarily kept them from helping and caring for one another. An extensive author's note, glossary, and resource list are included; readers will find their compassion stirred and their interest piqued through this truly fine historical novel.

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