Aloha Summer by Bill Wallace

From the Publisher

Fourteen-year-old John Priddle didn't want to leave his friends in Oklahoma. But Daddy, a would-be inventor, was offered a job on Mr. Dole's pineapple plantation in the Hawaii Territory in 1925. Hawaii was beautiful, but to John it was anything but paradise. He had never felt more alone in his life. Nobody wanted to be his friend. The Hawaiian kids called him haole—"white guy"—and wouldn't play with him. Then John met Kalola Pukui—a girl in his class who was not like anyone he had met before. She knew he was uneasy around girls, so she promised not to be a girl around him—and proved she could run, fish, and ride better than any boy around. Then she challenged him to take a chance on friendship—a friendship that would change his life...

Children's Literature

This interesting historical novel takes us to 1920s Hawaii, where the protagonist John moves with his inventor father and mother from depressed Oklahoma to work for a pineapple plantation. Fourteen-year-old John not only must adjust to life in a completely new climate but he must also adapt to the racism displayed towards native Hawaiians. Despite the opposition of his peers, lonely John befriends Carol, a beautiful Hawaiian girl, whose friendship opens his eyes to the beauty of the island and to the error of the white people's mistreatment of the natives.

VOYA

When John Priddle's father, an inventor, gets an offer to move to Hawaii from Oklahoma and work on the Dole plantation, the family discovers the racism separating haoles (whites) from their neighbors. But a lonely John makes friends with Kalola Pukui, and she and her grandmother teach him a lot about life. John's parents, refusing to succumb to the attitudes of the other whites, strive to improve working conditions for the natives. But finally frustrated at not being allowed to make changes, his father quits his job in disgust. Just then, Mr. Dole returns and discovers the wrongdoing of the supervisor, fires him, and promises things will be better. Although the setting is the 1920s, there is a timeless quality to this story. Honest, vulnerable John narrates this sweet yet unsentimental look at first love, the poison of prejudice, and plain folk who know what is right and what is not. VOYA Codes: 5Q 3P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Will appeal with pushing, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

School Library Journal

Gr 6-10Wallace has created a fish-out-of-water story by moving a boy and his family from Oklahoma to the Dole pineapple plantation in Hawaii in the 1920s. John Priddle and his parents find life in this tropical paradise strange, albeit beautiful, and discover themselves face to face with racismof other white Americans against the native Hawaiians and the Asian immigrants working on the plantation. While the challenges of a young teen learning to deal with such hatred, as well as his new feelings toward a pretty Hawaiian girl named Carol (Kalola in Hawaiian), could be a powerful story, this one is average and unexciting. John's voice changes throughout the booksometimes he uses a slang that is supposed to make him sound midwestern (one guesses). At other times, however, that slang disappears, and when it comes back, it is distracting. The novel begins very slowly, and reluctant readers won't get past the first few pages. James Dole makes a few cameos, but the remaining characters are fictitious. Some teens will enjoy the familiar emotions that John and Carol feel toward one another, and some may be interested in the Hawaiian culture and history. But sadly, there is not much here to hold the interest of most readers.Dina Sherman, Brooklyn Children's Museum, NY

Product Details