Review of “Mahalo Does Not Mean Trash” by Paki Perkins

Score: 91+/100 (9.1+ out of 10)

Mahalo Does Not Mean Trash by Paki Perkins is a children's book with a very compelling premise and culturally-significant message.

This surprisingly long book is full of colorful, appealing, eye-catching illustrations and friendly faces from beginning to end. So, like Mystery at Sea: A Noah's Ark Tale by Sylvie Bordzuk, your kids might really enjoy just the act of looking through it.

It helps that this book focuses on something that's near and dear to us: Hawaiian culture. Some of us grew up in Hawaii and in the Pacific. Although none of us speak the language fluently, we are somewhat familiar with it and even use it from time to time (to say things like hello, thank you, merry Christmas, delicious, and goodnight). Our founder is actually a graduate of the University of Hawaii. You could say that the Outstanding Creator Awards itself has its roots in the Hawaii Department of Education & the UH English Department. So, we understand the significance of this text, perhaps better than most. And that's probably where this text's greatest strength lays: raising awareness of something that's foreign, unknown, or misunderstood by most.

Hawaiian is a beautiful and complex language with a storied past and history. Unfortunately, as so many Tinfish Press books have eloquently pointed out, its a language that has largely fallen out of usage and has been in danger, even in the very islands from which it came. Along with the language, Hawaiian culture is foreign, unknown, or misunderstood by most people around the world including in America and Hawaii, the Aina, itself. We'd dare say that many peoples' preconceptions about Hawaiian culture comes from movies and television. Many understood “Aloha” to just mean “hello” or “goodbye” similar to “privyet” in Russian or “sayonara” in Japanese. Similarly, a word like “mahalo”--the focus of this book--is often simplified to just mean “thank you.” The truth is, these words mean a lot more than what's seen or heard on the surface.

A similar cultural example can be found in Finland, a country with the concept of Sisu, a word or concept that can't be fully translated into English but is usually just simplified to mean resilience or toughness. Likewise, the Japanese have the concept of ganbaru which means a lot more to them than just good luck.

In Mahalo Does Not Mean Trash, a little boy is confused because he continually sees the phrase “Mahalo” on the fronts of trash cans. Now, someone in the mainland who hasn't noticed this or who hasn't visited Hawaii might be confused at first. However, they'll probably catch on eventually. Yes, many trashcans in Hawaii do say “mahalo” on them in place of “Thank You” (which is usually on trashcans as a sort of encouragement for people to throw away their own trash rather than littering or leaving it for others). As a side note, you might see restrooms labeled as “Wahin'e” (women) and “Kan'e” (men).

According to this book, “mahalo” not only means thank you, but it can also mean respect, gratitude, esteem, and appreciation. The grandfather in this book says that it's a bit like a prayer, having spiritual significance. It's a sacred word with a lot of mana (power or energy).

Now, again, some of theses new concepts and words might be confusing for a western audience, but there's thankfully a glossary near the front of the book. This might serve as a good learning tool. Maybe older kids or adults learning Hawaii can highlight Hawaiian words/phrases and take note of them for a class assignment or something. Still, the transference or expression of information in this book can be a bit rough. It throws a lot at the audience at once. That might not be helped by the writing or paragraph structure of the book itself.

This book might be one that could really use a revision or two. This isn't because there are glaring errors like misspellings or bad grammar. No, that's not the case at all. It's really the way that dialogue and prose are used.

For one, it can be confusing when you have the same (or similar) story playing out in both the illustrations and in the prose itself. For example, two or three characters will have a conversation in the prose, then the same characters will be having the same conversation (albeit briefer) in the illustrations. So, we'd almost prefer to just read the dialogue in the illustrations, it's far less complicated and meandering.

With that said, the prose is extremely dense and often long for a children's book. There are sometimes huge blocks of text filled not only with Hawaiian names and phrases (which can already be confusing to those unfamiliar), but also English ones. This can really disrupt the flow of the reading and test the patience of a parent/teacher or their children/students. We like to see children's books be a lot more digestible, short, and sweet rather than a maze or puzzle. With that said, mazes and puzzles can be fun. It depends. It depends on the reader and on the complexity of the maze or puzzle. This one, we feel, might be a bit much for the target demographic. A young child can only stop and start so many times before they lose patience and give up. They have small attention spans.

One way in which this book could be easily improved is in simply improving the structure of the prose. The writing and all the paragraphs appear to be clustered together with little to no line breaks or indentations. Add some line breaks and indentations, particularly between pieces of dialogue, to give readers a chance to rest their eyes and be able to tell sections apart from each other. It's difficult when multiple different people are involved in a conversation, yet the dialogue isn't separated by line breaks and/or indentations. There's a reason this is done in prose. It's so that people can tell who is saying or doing what. It's also help the eyes flow down the page.

With all that said, mahalo nui loa to the author for sharing the love, wisdom, language, and culture of Hawaii with the world.

Check this out on Amazon!