What the World Needs Now

What the World Needs Now by Joyce Iwashita
Softcover, 48 pp
Release Date: May 2022
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How can you contribute to make the world a better place? That’s the question educator Joyce Iwashita asks in her new book, What the World Needs Now: A Guide for Helping Kids Make Good Choices. Simple actions and positive choices are rendered in vivid digital illustrations by Kelson Gallano, a senior at Ka‘ū High School on the island of Hawai‘i.

A retired school teacher and principal, and a graduate of Ka‘ū High herself, Iwashita found herself wondering during the pandemic, How could I help children, if I were still a school principal? “A global pandemic impacts everyone,” she notes, “but it presents especially great challenges for children and their families. Teaching students that they can make choices that will improve or enhance their lives—or someone else’s—helps bring out their best.” With that in mind, she wrote What the World Needs Now to spread the message that “Everyone can contribute to making things right in their schools, in their communities, and throughout the world.” 

When it came time to bring her lessons to life with artwork, Iwashita turned to her alma mater for a recommendation to a student illustrator. “I completed the writing in 2020, and in May of 2021 I was connected with Kelson,” Iwashita recalls. “He and I started communicating via Zoom and exchanged ideas and reviewed drafts in monthly conferences with his teacher and his parents.” Adds Gallano, “It was a great learning expererience for me and brought me out of my comfort zone—I taught myself to use the Procreate app on the iPad and used Mrs. Iwashita’s storyline paired with illustrations of what we as students go through every day. I’m thankful that she trusted and believed in me.” Gallano’s cover depicts the flowers spread across the hillside of Pu‘u Makanau, where the early Hawaiian navigators of Ka‘ū observed the stars—the “twinkling eyes” in the mountain’s name. The flowers, he explains, represent all the children of Ka‘ū.

The 48-page softcover, full-color book is a custom-quote project illustrated with original artwork provided in digital format by the client.

What the World Needs Now is available via our online store and at local bookstores and online retailers.

Cover and sample pages from the interior:

Ha‘aha‘a

Ha‘aha‘a by Thao “Kale‘a” Le, PhD, MPH
Hardcover, 32 pp
Release Date: September 2023
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Beautiful, sweet, stunning Mango is praised by everyone. Compared to the leaves, the tree branches, the other mangoes, Mango is just…better…isn’t it so? When confronted with the sacrifices of those around them, Mango learns a valuable lesson in humility.

Written by Thao “Kale‘a” Le, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Human Development and Family Studies program in the Family Consumer Sciences Department at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa, Ha‘aha‘a is a creative narrative for encouraging humble appreciation of one’s own gifts and the contributions of others. Ha‘aha‘a is one of the components of ALOHA, as espoused by the teachings of Native Hawaiian poet and philosopher Aunty Pīlahi Pākī, otherwise known as the “Aloha Spirit Law,” HRS [§5-7.5].

Covers Hawaii Content & Performance Standards Database III Content Area: Health
Standard 1: Core Concepts – Understand concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention (Mental and Emotional Health); Standard 3: Self-Management – Practice Health: Enhancing behaviors and reduce health risks (Mental and Emotional Health, Factors Influencing Health Across Topic Areas); Standard 5: Interpersonal Communication – Use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health

This is the third book in Dr. Le’s series designed to teach children about ALOHA and mindfulness. 

The 32-page hardcover, full-color book is a custom-quote project illustrated with original artwork provided in digital format by the client.

Ha‘aha‘a is available via our online store and has been distributed through the author’s efforts via partnerships with educational organizations.

Cover and sample pages from the interior:

Beyond the Lines

Beyond the Lines by Rusty Komori

Beyond the Lines: Creating a Leadership Culture to Achieve Extraordinary Results
by Rusty Komori

Softcover, 112 pp
Release Date: December 2017
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Beyond the Lines offers a game plan for any leader to help an organization achieve and sustain success. In direct, simple terms, author Rusty Komori lays out a path for achievement and excellence in leadership, drawing from notable examples in sports history, as well as his own experience during more than two decades as a successful, championship-winning tennis coach.

Rusty Komori is a motivational speaker, leadership consultant, and tennis professional based in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. From 1994 through 2015, he was the head tennis coach at Punahou School, where his boys’ varsity teams won an unprecedented 22 consecutive state championships, a national record in all sports that still stands. His books are a component of his speaking engagements, providing lasting lessons and a reminder of Komori’s consulting services.

This book is a customized version of the Professional Package, with increased print run.

Beyond the Lines is available via our online store, local bookstores and via online booksellers.

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Can, No Can!

Can, No Can! by Fred Hemmings
Can, No Can! Making Changes, Hawaiian-Style by Fred Hemmings
Softcover, 108 pp
Release Date: July 2020
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In Can, No Can! Making Changes, Hawaiian-Style, longtime Hawai‘i state senator and world champion surfer Fred Hemmings offers a calabash full of ideas for the future of the Islands, including a sprinkling of “random thoughts” and yes-or-no options from a local boy’s perspective. “A dear friend, Chubby Mitchell, was a graceful surfer and a man of aloha,” Hemmings explains. “Whenever I’d get frustrated by something, he would look at me and say, ‘Freddie, if can, can. If no can, no can.’ All these years later, I surmise that this pragmatic outlook on life contributed significantly to the aloha of bygone days.”

The book is compilation of Hemmings’s essays, letters, legislation, statements to the press and news clips spanning the years, including hot-button items still as relevant today as they were then. Says Hemmings, “I always have believed that there are good solutions to Hawai‘i’s problems and that there’s usually a better way to do things. Unfortunately, we in the Islands get caught up in the dilemma expressed by, of all people, Albert Einstein, in the mid-20th century. To paraphrase Einstein, ‘Doing the same thing and expecting different results defines insanity.’ Maybe it is time to do some things differently in Hawai‘i.”

This book is a customized version of the Professional Package, with increased print run.

Can, No Can! Making Changes, Hawaiian-Style is available via our online store and at local bookstores

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Educating with Aloha

Educating with Aloha by Jan Iwase
Softcover, 176 pp
Release Date: August 2021
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In Educating with Aloha: Reflections from the Heart on Teaching and Learning—her second book drawing upon the wisdom of 45 years as an educator—Jan Iwase offers fresh insights into creating caring school communities. Packed with succinct advice and thought-provoking anecdotes, Educating with Aloha is Iwase’s follow-up to Leading with Aloha: From the Pineapple Fields to the Principal’s Office, her 2019 book that laid the groundwork for filling schools and classrooms with happy students, empowered teachers and involved parents. A longtime Hawai‘i public school teacher and principal, she envisions a system of learning in which teachers and students alike develop a passion for education. For Iwase, “Educating with Aloha” is more than a catchphrase; it embodies her career-long method of cultivating the best in adults and children through respectful interaction and cooperative effort.

A one-time district elementary principal of the year, Iwase rose through the ranks of Hawai‘i’s educational system, beginning in the Head Start program and ending her teaching years as principal of Daniel K. Inouye Elementary School. “After Leading with Aloha, I was often asked when I would write a second book,” Iwase recalls. “Frankly, I had not given it any thought, but when COVID-19 hit, I found myself with the time to think and reflect. As a retired educator, one of my major concerns was how this pandemic would impact our students, teachers, school leaders, and schools in general. This is the perfect time to discuss how to make schools more relevant in the 21st century.”

This book is a customized version of the Professional Package, with increased print run.

Educating with Aloha is available via our online store, local bookstores and via online booksellers.

Cover and sample pages from the interior:

Beyond the Game


Beyond the Game: Coaching for Peak Performance in Business, Sports, and Life
by Rusty Komori

Softcover, 128 pp
Release Date: April 2020
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Beyond the Game: Coaching for Peak Performance in Business, Sports, and Life builds on the lessons outlined by championship coach Rusty Komori in his first book, Beyond the Lines. In Beyond the Game, Komori provides a toolbox for those who aspire to lead successful teams. Coaches, he says, strive to improve themselves first, to provide a foundation for instilling greatness in others. Smart coaches pay attention to what Komori calls the Three Cs of Leadership—Choices, Communication and Culture—and apply the Six Keys for Peak Performance—areas of focus to achieve the most and excel in life. Komori offers advice in direct, straightforward terms and draws examples from his decades as a successful, championship-winning tennis coach.

Rusty Komori is a motivational speaker, leadership consultant, and tennis professional based in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. From 1994 through 2015, he was the head tennis coach at Punahou School, where his boys’ varsity teams won an unprecedented 22 consecutive state championships, a national record in all sports that still stands. His books are a component of his speaking engagements, providing lasting lessons and a reminder of Komori’s consulting services.

This book is a customized version of the Professional Package, with increased print run.

Beyond the Game is available via our online store, local bookstores and via online booksellers.

Cover and sample pages from the interior:

The Greater Good

The Greater Good – Life Lessons from Hawai‘i’s Leaders by Evan and Keri Leong

Softcover, 220 pp
Release Date: November 2007
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Business owners Evan and Kari Leong wanted a companion book product featuring guests they had hosted on their community-orientated radio show, Greater Good Radio, and television shows, Greater Good TV and Greater Good Moments, to extend their Greater Good brand: After hundreds of hours of interviews for the shows, the Leongs realized that the foundation of success is built upon seven core values. They took the interviews and divided them into chapters illustrating these core values to create a book that complements the guests’ appearances on the Greater Good shows and shares the Greater Good philosophy.

Aimed at students, budding entrepreneurs, established businessmen, career men and women, and ordinary individuals struggling to find meaning in their lives, The Greater Good – Life Lessons from Hawai‘i’s Leaders blends instructional, motivational and inspirational anecdotes from some of the most successful business and community leaders in Hawai‘i.

This book is a customized version of the Professional Package, with increased print run. The client also did a short run printing of a hardcover edition.

To purchase The Greater Good, visit the Greater Good book site.

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Akahai

Akahai
Hardcover, 36 pp
Release Date: August 2021
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What does it mean to be kind? How do we decide who deserves kindness? Venturing through the beautiful Hawai‘i rainforest, Keiki encounters Nēnē, Pueo, Kolohala, Moa, Poloka, and Pua‘a, who provide the perfect opportunity for Keiki to practice loving kindness with the magical Akahai backpack. But does Kopiana, who hurt poor Nēnē, deserve Keiki’s help?

Written by Thao “Kale‘a” Le, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Human Development and Family Studies program in the Family Consumer Sciences Department at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa, Akahai is a creative narrative for encouraging loving kindness. Akahai is the first concept in ALOHA, as espoused by the teachings of Native Hawaiian poet and philosopher Aunty Pīlahi Pākī, otherwise known as the “Aloha Spirit Law,” HRS [§5-7.5].

Covers Hawaii Content & Performance Standards Database III Content Area: Health
Standard 1: Core Concepts – Understand concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention (Mental and Emotional Health); Standard 3: Self-Management – Practice Health: Enhancing behaviors and reduce health risks (Mental and Emotional Health, Factors Influencing Health Across Topic Areas); Standard 4: Analyzing Influences – Understand the influences of culture, family, peers, media, technology, and other factors on health; Standard 5: Interpersonal Communication – Use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health; Standard 6: Decision-Making and Goal-Setting – Use decision-making and goal-setting skills to enhance health

This is the second book in Dr. Le’s series designed to teach children about using breath to connect with ALOHA as a mindfulness practice. 

The 36-page hardcover, full-color book is a custom-quote project illustrated with original artwork provided in digital format by the client. In addition to the print edition, Akahai was converted to e-book format for Amazon Kindle and Apple Books platforms.

Akahai is available via our online store and has been distributed through the author’s efforts via partnerships with educational organizations.

Cover and sample pages from the interior:

Hawai‘i’s Future

Hawai‘i’s Future
Softcover, 120 pp
Release Date: September 2020
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Hawai‘i’s future has been a growing concern for former governor George Ariyoshi for many years. In an interview with Civil Beat, Ariyoshi said, “I’m doing my book because I’m very concerned about the future,” he said. “I feel the future is not being addressed. And by that I mean the problems come up and people are not trying to address the problems.”

In his book, Hawai‘i’s Future, Ariyoshi poses the questions: “Are we doing this the right way? Can we do better?” Known for his leadership in long-range planning, the former governor offers a sweeping vision for managing growth and shaping Hawai‘i’s future for the generations to come.

The 120-page softcover book is a customized version of the Professional Package, with increased print run.

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Mindfulness with Aloha Breath

Mindfulness with Aloha Breath
Hardcover, 36 pp
Release Date: September 2020
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Written by Thao “Kale‘a” Le, PhD, MPH, a professor in Human Development and Family Studies, Mindfulness with Aloha Breath incorporates Aunty Pilahi Paki’s meaning of aloha as designated in the “Aloha Spirit Law” (HRS [§5-7.5]) and basic concepts of neurological and biological function in a simple, expressive lesson for children.

Dr. Le created the book to teach children about using breath to connect with ALOHA as a mindfulness practice. 

The 36-page hardcover, full-color book is a custom-quote project illustrated with original artwork provided in digital format by the client. In addition to the print edition, Aloha Breath was converted to e-book format for Amazon Kindle and Apple Books platforms.

Mindfulness with Aloha Breath is available via our online store and has been distributed through the author’s efforts via partnerships with educational organizations.

Cover and sample pages from the interior: