New York, NY : Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2026]
©2026

English

Aouli Elizabeth Smith is adrift: unheard at home and an unbeliever at church, fighting her sister and losing her best friend. Overflowing with feeling, she pours her secrets and herself into her song journal when the world threatens to sweep her away. The one place she feels tied down to earth is at her Aunty Ehu's house. Those joyous Saturdays with her extended Native Hawaiian community living in Western Washington are precious to her. Under the maple trees, the fragments of her life fit together, if only for an afternoon. Then, an unspeakable truth about her father shatters this one perfect corner of her life. As Aouli's world constricts around what others wish she could be, language fails her. But when a new boy, Nalu, turns up with eyes that seem to pierce right into her soul, maybe it's love that can give her the words to set herself free

Families -- Fiction

Hawaiians -- Fiction

First loves -- Fiction

Love -- Fiction

Family secrets -- Fiction

Belonging (Social psychology) -- Fiction

Novels in verse -- Fiction

Diaries -- Fiction

Coming of age -- Fiction

Novels in verse.

Romance fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Coming-of-age fiction.

Fiction.

Added--202606 tfic

AHML Diversity book project -- Indigenous interest

AHML Diversity book project -- Asian & Pacific Islander interest