Princess Ka'iulani

Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People

By: Sharon Linnea

Narrated by: Jessica Schell

On March 1, 1893, Princess Ka’iulani, the 17-year-old crown princess of Hawaii, stepped onto the pier at New York City. She was greeted by a crowd of reporters and onlookers who knew that, in many ways, she stood at a crossroads in history. Fully aware of the significance of her visit, she prayed that she could help persuade the American government to return her beautiful islands to the Hawaiian people.

This biography tells the fascinating and little-known story of Princess Ka’iulani’s life and courageous fight for Hawaiian independence. Using many newly translated journals and letters, Sharon Linnéa introduces young listeners to the most beloved figure in Hawaiian history and one of America’s most overlooked Christian heroines.

©1999 William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (P)2019 William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Wonderful!

I didn't know if would be able to get into this book but I was very pleasantly surprised. I was leery it might be dry and slow but it is so well written that it flowed easily and was quite interesting. Princess Ka’iulani was a beautiful person, and made me think of Princess Diana the way she treated others. I was saddened at the end of the story, although I obviously knew she died. I cant imagine the loss everyone must have felt at that time. I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

beautiful person

it was a very sad ending - I would have liked to have seen what she could have done for her country.

My favorite historical person

The overall story of Ka’iulani matched what I grew up reading and hearing. Kudos for the attempts at speaking ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.

Breathless reader…hate that style

The book is great but its not a “breathless” type of book and the reader forces it.… she could be a good reader but trys too hard and the inflections and emphasis of words and tones is awful to listen to in this type of book!

Perfect!

When I thirst contemplated reading this book it was because I had no idea Hawaii had royalty and that included Hawaiian royalty and Anglo-Saxon royalty. Even though that is lost to us due to the greed that’s still a lot of traditions across the world I am so glad someone decided to write it down for history sake. I found this book interesting I found the history of HawaiiVery interesting and the taking over of Hawaii was the same old same old. With greedy U.S politicians wanting something they did nothing to deserve. did they are. I digress though this is a great book and I found it very interesting the whole thing from beginning to end I loved itvtime. I didn’t know they even had royalty before reading the story now it makes me sad that that is something else lost to history.

Enjoyable

Listened to off and on thru out one afternoon. Having lived in Hawaii a couple of times, it was interesting to hear all that happened that led up to Hawaii’s annexation to the US. This book tied in well with James Micheners book Hawaii.

Th life of Princess Ka'iulani

Beautifully written story of the life of Hawaii's most beloved Princess. The narration left a lot to be desired. It sounded like she was reading to a children's class, complete with trying to change her voice to mimic characters in the book. I found it very distracting after awhile and unnecessary. It also would have been nice if she had used the correct pronounciation of many of the Hawaiian names and words that were used.

An Enjoyable Listen

I really enjoyed this book and found it to be very interesting. The author did a good job of tying Ka'iulani's story together with the historical events that were happening around her. she gave a lot of details so that the reader/listener would easily be able to envision the words on the page. However, I would've loved if they had found an actual Hawaiian to narrate this book as I found the narrator's pronunciation of the Hawaiian words distracting. She mispronounced many of them, which made it hard to listen to. Otherwise, it was a good listen.

Excellent!

historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, Hawaii, bravery, kindness, greed

A very moving history of Hawaii and the greed that progressively diminished its importance as told through respected correspondence and newspaper accounts from well over a century ago. But most importantly it is a tribute to the young princess who accomplished much in her short life and why her memory is still important all these years later.
I won this audiobook in a giveaway, but it's certainly worth the money if I had known about it.
Almost forgot to mention that narrator Jessica Schell was wonderful!

Enjoyed this book!

After reading the books description I thought it would be interesting, and I was right. I enjoyed learning about Princess Ka'iulani, Hawiian history and culture.