What really happened to Eddie Aikau? In her inspirational new children’s book, Eddie Wen’ Go: The Story of the Upside-Down Canoe, former Hōkūle‘a crewmember Marion Lyman-Mersereau imagines what Hawai‘i’s ocean creatures saw when the voyaging canoe capsized and the heroic Aikau went for help. Illustrated in lavish watercolor by Melissa DeSica, the 64-page hardcover book tells the story of the Hōkūle‘a’s disastrous journey—30 years ago this March—from the canoe’s launch to the crewmembers’ rescue.

The book’s companion read-along CD puts voices to Lyman-Mersereau’s colorful cast of characters—including a wise grandmother whale and her curious grandson, a sassy young dolphin, a tough pidgin-speaking shark, and a free-spirited ‘iwa (frigate bird)—who share in the telling of the story, with liberal use of Hawaiian words and phrases. Each of the older animals take their turn in relating their part in the tale, the events they saw, or the family lore handed down about the “upside-down canoe” and the brave human who went for help.

Author Marion Lyman-Mersereau helped to build the Hōkūle‘a, and was a crewmember on its fateful journey in March 1978, as well as on a subsequent voyage in 1980.

 

Author: Marion Lyman-Mersereau

Illustrator: Melissa DeSica

64pp

Hardcover

Includes companion read-along CD

 

Publication date: June 2008