Musubi Man: Hawaii's Gingerbread Man

by Sandi Takayama, Pat Hall (Illustrator)

The Musubi Man Like the Gingerbread Man in the classic tale, the Musubi Man leads his pursuers on a merry chase. Full description

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Fairy Tales

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1997

Reviews

[Linda Rusche]

Really fun to read. Bright happy illustrations. Neat take on the classic gingerbread the.

[Christine]

Cute story! The musubi man is a little bit funny and creepy-looking. Will be looking for a heart-shaped umeboshi so we can make our own!

[Victoria Martin]

The ending made me giggle. I quite enjoyed this version of the gingerbread man!

[shay]

Hawai'is version of the gingerbread man.

[Christine Joy]

It's cute! It's a classic local children's book. Just super cute. It's funny when there are read-aloud performances for kids.

[Victoria Victor]

Amazing book for anyone to read whether you are a child or an adult.

[Dina]

Great book! I bought it while on vacation in Hawaii to add to my "runaway" stories. (Gingerbread man) I always go to the Asian section of the grocery store & buy a few ingredients that make the musabi man and we do a taste test after the story... This story also helps lead us into writing our own runaway stories, using our favorite foods.

[Dolly]

This is a fun Hawaiian take on the Gingerbread man story. Much of the story is written in pidgin, as that's how the gingerbread man speaks, and although it makes perfect sense to me, it could be confusing to others. And folks outside of Hawaii and Japan might be confused by the musubi (more commonly known as onigiri in Japan). The delectable combination of sushi rice, spam, and egg all wrapped up in nori seaweed is a wonderful "sandwich" that is extremely popular here and a quick snack our girls love. While I'm not a big fan of our girls learning pidgin, they aren't exposed to it too much and it is cute in the story. Our girls also saw a theater production of this a couple of times, presented by the Hawaii Theater for Youth. It's much better on stage than in the book.

[Jill]

I first heard this book during student teaching when the speech teacher read it to my class!

This was our Thursday rendition of the Gingerbread Man story. It is the Hawaiian "version", so to speak. I liked that we were being exposed to a subculture of the United States. Plus my kids are obsessed with the idea of Hawaii so they were really into the story.

The Musubi Man spoke in Pidgin, which was culturally accurate but a bit difficult to read and sort of non-understandable to my Midwestern students.

Overall, the kids liked it but didn't love it. I think there could've been a better illustrator, but I liked the story.

[Pua Hawaiʻi Book Blog]

The Musubi Man is a local retelling of the popular children’s tale, The Gingerbread Man. Takayama puts her own Hawaii twist on the story by including such colorful characters as the poi dog, mynah bird, mongoose and a surfer, as well as numerous local staples like ono food and beautiful, realistic settings. Illustrator Pat Hall does a tremendous job translating Takayama’s story into a vibrant and colorful world.

Complete review here: http://www.hawaiibookblog.com/article...

[Cindy]

The Musubi Man Written by Sandi Takayama; illustrated by Pat Hall 1996
The Musubi Man is an adaptation of the classic Gingerbread Man told from a Hawaiian perspective. The musubi man is made of rice and seaweed and runs from a tiny house in the taro patch. The little man has limu hair, a nori jacket, takuan eyes, ebi nose and a mouth of red ginger. He also has a umeboshi heart. He runs from the poi dog, the mynh bird who is sitting in a papaya tree and a sleek mongoose. A surfer takes the place of the classic fox.

[Meadow]

The Hawaiian take on the Gingerbread Man. Pretty funny.

[Alex]

http://www.hawaiibookblog.com/?p=404