Children's Short Story collection. One story: Legend of creating Hawaii islands using native man's fishing line. From 1980s/early 1990s.

[Simi]

I only remember one story within this short story collection and it was the one about Maui using his fishing line to pull up and create the islands of Hawaii. It was a paperback book from the 1980s, early 1990s. Very similar to Puffin's paperback edition of Just So Stories.

[Simi]

Bump

[Becca]

I know you can't remember any of the other stories, but can you remember if they had a shared theme? e.g. were they all Hawaiian, or were they all creation myths from around the world?

[Simi]

I wouldn't say they had a shared theme. Around that time I read a lot of paperbacks which contained short stories, sometimes by a single author, other times by other authors.
In Rudyard's Kipling's
Just So Stories is the story "How the First Letter was Written."


Another similar book I had is
How the Whale Became
but those are just animal stories.


There is also Stories for Eight Year Olds which at first glance I thought could be it. It has a story "The Magic Fishbone", but it's a different story, not about the creation of Hawaii.

There were a range of such books, "Stories for Seven Year Olds", etc yet I can only definitely say I had the one for Eight Year Olds and the story I'm looking for was not within it, despite remembering the other ones.

Those are a few examples of the kind of books I had and it was such a book.

[Simi]

Bumping this

[Rainbowheart]

The Golden Hoard?

It has the fishing line story. But it's from '95, is that too recent?

[Kris]

Google Books has a snippet preview of The Golden Hoard: Myths and Legends of the World (1995) by Geraldine McCaughrean - Rainbowheart's suggestion. You might get lucky searching for keywords:

https://books.google.com/books?id=CTT...

Quotes from the book:
- Maui is the trickster hero of Oceanic mythology: a rebel who broke every taboo. He is also said to have created the archipelagos by hauling up each island from beneath the ocean with his fishing line.
- The Sun rolled and spun, tugged and leapt, like a giant tuna fish caught on a fishing line. But Maui was a great fisherman and he fought the Sun to a standstill.

Worldcat.org lists the 22 myths and legends in this book. Scroll down to "Contents:".
https://www.worldcat.org/title/golden...

[Simi]

Thanks Rainbowheart, Kris.
It might be that one but I don't recognise any of the other stories so it's doubtful. 1995 is still within the timeframe of me having read it.

I'm having second thoughts about the islands being the Hawaii islands too now. It may have been the Aleutian Islands, and there seems to be creation myths associated with them.

[Capn]

This doesn't look like it: Legends of Maui - A Demi-God of Polynesia and of His Mother Hina, but I stumbled across it when creating the "Polynesia, Oceania, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu" list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I'll keep an eye out for it, if it pops up here.

[Simi]

Thanks. I don't think the other stories were necessarily also about island creation myths but I remember specifically that story if that makes sense.

[Simi]

Bump. Still searching.

[Simi]

Still searching.

[Rainbowheart]

Still got my eyes peeled for ya!

[Simi]

I have found the story.
"How Ma-ui fished up the great island" Padraic Colum

Now I need to find the correct book that this story is contained within as there are several.

[Capn]

Simi wrote: "I have found the story.
"How Ma-ui fished up the great island" Padraic Colum

Now I need to find the correct book that this story is contained within as there are several."

Oh wow, congrats!! :D Finally snagged this elusive fish, eh? :)

[Simi]

Haha yes indeed. I found the story, now still need to find the book it was within as I'm sure there are other stories within that I'd like to reread.

[Simi]

I think it might be "Best-Loved Folktales of the World" by Joanna Cole. I sort of recognise some of the other stories within it although I don't recognise the cover of the book itself. I also vaguely remember there was an illustration of the islands which were fished up which isn't within this compilation. Still, I'm reasonably satisfied and thank you to all who helped.