Using the unexplored and often tough neighborhoods of Hawai'i as a backdrop, Growing Up Local uncovers a boy’s struggle to establish his identity beyond his father’s fists and his loyalty to his friends. The tale of Stanley explores three generations of the Nagata family, and tells the universal story of the conflict between father and a son and the expectations and burdens that are passed on from generation to generation.
Thirteen-year-old David Kealoha dreams of escaping rural Hawaii. But when Jonah Morris, a white kid from Phoenix, Arizona moves into the neighborhood, tragedy strikes, irrevocably changing the trajectory of David’s life and those closest to him.
Set at the time of the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, the unseated monarchy finds a hero in an unlikely place. Micah, a young thief, is asked to go on a mission that has the promise of reclaiming Hawaiian identity.