Bones of the Ancestors

What if the ancient spirits of Hawaii are real?
Do you believe in mana, supernatural power?
They say that beneath the sands of the beach of Waipio, the Valley of the Kings, lies the hidden entrance to Pō, the leaping off place of souls into the spirit world. On nights of the dark moon, the ghostly Night Marchers, beings neither living nor dead, rise from the sea, led by their terrifying chief. To look upon him is to invite death.
So the people say.
But thatʻs far from all.

When Bindi and her older sister Shimmer journey into the beautiful, mysterious valley, they discover that the valley holds sacred secrets that are hidden to outsiders. Though Waipiʻo is one of the most beautiful places in the islands, like something out of the Jurassic Age, with its giant fern trees and tropical flowers and lush jungles streaked with waterfalls, a place where one might expect dinosaurs to still be hiding in the mist, things far more unbelievable and frightening and dangerous are hidden just beyond the veil of appearances.

For things are not what they appear to be.

Kahuna ʻanaʻana who practice black magic and fight battles with fireballs, ʻaumākua, souls who after death have entered into owls and sharks and turtles and other animals, moʻo, giant lizards who make Komodo dragons look like geckos, with their queen Kihawahini, the most powerful moʻo of all-all inhabit the sacred valley. Stone idols with their strange inscriptions who embody gods and supernatural powers warn those who enter the jungle to turn back, the famous waterfall that is really a Kapua, an ancient spirit that has taken the form of transparent water, and the great war god Kūkaiʻilimoku, Snatcher of Islands who eats blood-all of these are to be only whispered about. But most taboo of all are the caves of the iwi, the bones of the ancestors, for the ancients know that the spirit of a person, the ʻuhane, lingers about oneʻs bones, and if the bones are disturbed, the ʻuhane becomes angry and takes revenge.

"What happens if the bones, the iwi, are disturbed?" repeated All Man. "You see, according to the ancients, the spirit of a person, the 'uhane, lingers about his bones. The mana of the bones goes back into the soil, the 'āina, and then nourishes the people again as food. The āina then is infused with mana to empower the people. If the bones are disrespected, or moved from their resting place, the 'uhane becomes very angry."

The girls have been strictly warned: entering caves is dangerous-and kapu, forbidden. But when two older boys invite them to go deep into the jungle to explore a burial cave, their curiosity gets the better of them.
Should they go? What could possibly go wrong?

Here is a haunting adventure rooted in Hawaiian mythology, ancestral memory, and the mysteries of the natural world that crosses the boundaries between childrenʻs adventure and literary fiction.