Review Detail

Pau: The Last Song of the Kaua’i ‘o’o is a breathtaking look at the history of Hawaii and how a bird became extinct. The inside cover sets the stage with a child approaching paintings and a headset to listen. The following pages are written like what that child would hear about the paintings. The illustrations are so heartfelt, and the attention to detail makes this bird come to life once again. Seeing the time marching on and approaching specific modern dates was an attention grabber. As the ending of the book nears, we see this species come down to one bird singing the mating call with no return answer and it brought a tear to my eye imagining the hurt and confusion it felt being alone. The illustration that is the most captivating to me is the close-up of the bird’s eye with the reflection of human construction and nonnative pests in it. With the new Moana 2 movie out this is a fantastic time to spotlight the Pacific island and its history from an unusual perspective.