The Prince and the Li Hing Mui

by Sandi Takayama, Esther Szegedy (Illustrator)

A common man proves to be more princely than aristocrats in this Hawaiian version of The princess and the pea.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1998

Reviews

[La PSN · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use to tell my daughter stories of the princess pea and my own variations after her bath. I wish I had this then, but giving it to my daughter and other toddler to start now telling the Hawaiian variation of it, and keeping my Hawaiian ancestry alive in a different way.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author has taken a few well-known fairy tales and created Hawaiian versions of them. This story was fun, although the pidgin was a bit distracting and would not be very understandable for anyone unfamiliar with the dialect and the manner of speech. If you understand it, though, it makes perfect sense and is quite humorous. Our girls liked this story, but aren't as familiar with the powerful lure of the li hing mui powder as I am. Perhaps that calls for a trip to the crack seed store, eh?

[Amber the Human · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this while browsing around a book store in Japan Town in SF. Mostly I wanted something to look at while I sat down after too much browsing. This book is cute. I think I'e had Li Hing Mui, but I thought it was too sour. But it's a cute, somewhat feminist story, and a nice story with a Hawaiian twist. But I didn't buy it.