Dance for the Land

by Clemence McLaren

When twelve-year-old Kate, who is half-white, moves to Hawaii with her brother and father, she becomes a victim of racial prejudice but also learns the meaning of her middle name This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689823932
• ISBN13: 9780689823930
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Length: 153 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Aloha!

Read it! Dance For The Land is the greatest book I ever read. It takes place in Honolulu,Hawaii and Kate is the main character. She has to leave her dog,Boggs at California with her best friend,Sarah. Her housekeeper is working for some other family. When Kate goes to school a girl in her class performs hula dancing. Kate gets hurt from this boy named Chad. Chad hates Kate. One thing I leaned is that "haiku" means pregnant. Her aunt gets pregnant. I like this book because the setting is a great place and the main character is shy. I think this genre is realistic fiction. I love anything that has to do with Hawaii. I just hope you read it. Thank yo

Hawaii's Gift of Peace To the World

"Dance For The Land," another of Clemence McLaren's wonderful novels, is one that really stands out from the others, in a way that it shares with the world Hawaii's cultures and language. About a "hapa-haole," ("half-white" in Hawaiian), Kate, who comes to the land of Hawaii unwillingly, reaches back to her past and half of her culture. Kate finds the traditional Hawaiian dance, the "Hula," as a way of making peace with her "aina," her home land. Skillfully weaving a novel together, including part of the Hawaiian language and cultures, Clemence McLaren once again creates a breath-taking page-turner that is hard to put down for an imaginative reader!

Finding one's place in life

When Kate's lawyer father decides the Kahele Family should move to Hawai'i, all Kate can think about is the life she is leaving behind in California. As her father studies for the state bar exam and her dark skinned brother happily hits the beaches, she has to handle the torments of her classmates and people on the street for being half-white. When she discovers hula dancing, she begins to feel the rhythms of the land and to understand the political and social history of her place in life. This book moves beyond fears and stereotypes and talks about racial and cultural issues both within the family and the larger society. The author has lived for many years in Hawai'i. She teaches in a school for Hawaiian children, most of whom are mixed race. I found Kate's personal growth my own as well. I learned not only about Hawai'i, hula, and biracial situations, but also the pain of immigration.