“You have gone too far with this one,” said the Man in the Crowd, scowling and pointing at our book.

“The book is about Hawai‘i, sir, and Hawaiian cultural values, like aloha,” said Dr. Carolan.

“I’m just telling you, you’ve gone too far,” said the Man in Crowd.

“It is not a political book, sir, it is about Hawai‘i and aloha,” said Dr. Carolan.

The Man in the Crowd was a head taller than my husband and his voice was getting louder. The group of people around the Hawai‘i table was at least 10 to 15 deep, but most of the crowd seemed oblivious to the exchange. I could feel my heart beat more quickly and my breathing become shallow. I smiled at the two children standing in front of me and reached down for the map they were holding out. I pressed the tropical fish stamp onto their map next to the islands of Hawai‘i. “This fish is called the humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua’a,” I said, “Can you say that?” They giggled, and the little girl asked me, “Can I have two stickers, please?”

We were at the Hawai‘i table at the National Book Festival on the National Mall. It had been a fun day up until that point. A non-stop crush of happy children and adults had crowded around the Hawai‘i table from the moment the festival began. All day people had shared their stories about Hawai‘i, asked us questions about our new children’s book, and enjoyed the free tropical-design bookmarks, stickers, rulers, pens and information packets we were handing out.

My husband, Dr. Carolan, is a pediatrician and I am an artist. We have published seven children’s books to date, all of which have Hawai‘i themes. We live on Kaua’i. Our seventh children’s book, entitled “A President from Hawai‘i” and published in July, was selected by Hawai‘i’s Center for the Book to represent the state of Hawai‘i at the National Book Festival — quite an honor as each state selects only one book to send to the National Book Festival each year. That was why we were there, in Washington, D.C., at the Hawai‘i table, chatting with people, handing out stickers, answering questions, and now being accosted by an angry man.

“I see you didn’t include a copy of his birth certificate,” sneered the Man in the Crowd, leafing through the display copy of our book.

He glared at my husband and said, “What if I were to write a book about Texas and President Bush?”

“I think that would be a great idea, sir. In which case, you would be over there, at the Texas table,” replied my husband.

At that point, our host from the Hawai‘i State Society, a smiling Hawaiian woman, came around from behind the table and drew the man off to the side. She looked small and vulnerable standing next to him in her brightly colored mu‘umu‘u. But by the time I made my way to where they were standing he had gone.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, concerned.

“Oh, I’m fine, honey,” she said. She smiled at me, but the smile didn’t seem to make it all the way up to her eyes. I smiled back, but certainly some of the glow had gone out of the day for me.

I’m not sure what I would have said to the Man in the Crowd if I had been able to speak with him. After the festival was over, I let my mind wander over possible directions the conversation could have taken. Ho‘oponopono is a Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and conflict resolution. We define this Hawaiian word in our book as “… working things out, resolving conflict, talking, listening, forgiving, that’s what it’s about.” President Obama’s “beer summit” with Dr. Gates and Sergeant Crowley, had the feel of ho‘oponopono to many of us watching from Hawai‘i.

My husband and I began writing “A President from Hawai‘i” after listening to Barack Obama’s campaign speeches during 2007 and 2008. The more we listened to his words, the more we felt that his upbringing in Hawai‘i contributed to making him the man he is today. We were further inspired by Michelle Obama’s statement to David Mendell, “You can’t really understand Barack until you understand Hawai‘i.” Our book explores many Hawaiian words, values and cultural concepts, all of which President Obama would have experienced growing up in our 50th state. In addition to the key concept of aloha, the book introduces other Hawaiian values such as kokua (help), lokahi (unity) and ‘ohana (family), among others.

Two top Hawaiian recording artists and cultural practitioners, Keli’i Kaneali’i and Healani Youn traveled with us to D.C. They had worked with us on the companion CD for “A President from Hawai‘i” and performed the slack key guitar, hula and oli (Hawaiian chants) at our book readings. The day before the National Book Festival we had given a book reading at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, one of the highlights of the trip, to a standing room only crowd.

On the Monday following the National Book Festival, we gave a book reading at Watkins Elementary School. On our way to the school I found myself mentally defending our book to the Man in the Crowd. As I looked over our Hawai‘i group — Caucasian, Japanese, Hawaiian-Korean and Hawaiian-Portuguese — all of us dressed in aloha wear and wearing flower lei ¬ I thought we were a good representation of our Aloha State: different ethnicities, different professions, different backgrounds, all of us working together. Our children’s book is not a “scholarly treatise,” I said in my head to the Man in the Crowd. It presents some of Hawai‘i’s history and cultural values in a way that is a fun and accessible.

Watkins Elementary School is housed in a brick building in downtown D.C. The brick building looks old, but the atmosphere in the school is warm and welcoming. Children’s artwork lines the hallway to the auditorium. It is a primary school for approximately 500 students, Pre-K through 4th grades. The principal, Mr. Eatman, and his staff were inspiring to watch. As each class filed into the auditorium, the children were lively, yet well behaved.

As the students filed into the auditorium, Alison, one of the members of our group, and one of the school’s teachers set up the school’s projector and laptop computer.

A number of buttons were broken on the laptop. The teacher showed Alison how to press the tip of a pen into an area on the keyboard in order to advance the images. It took a delicate touch.

After our reading, music and hula performance my husband went into the audience with the microphone to answer some of the students’ questions. “How many beaches are there in Hawai‘i? How many different colors of sand on the beaches? What is the most famous beach?” One question was from a third grade student, “What year was Barack Obama born?” When Dr. Carolan answered, “1961,” there was a collective groan from all 500 students, followed by a buzz of exclamations: “That’s so old! He’s really old!” The students’ reaction made us all laugh. I’d like to think it would have even made the Man in the Crowd smile.

As the children filed out of the auditorium one little girl waved my husband over. She motioned for him to lean down. Softly, so the other students couldn’t hear, she asked him, “Will you take me back with you to Hawai‘i?” Looking over the 500 children, I realized, for many of them, our performance might be the closest they would ever get to Hawai‘i.

To the Man in the Crowd I want to say this: “We donate a portion of the proceeds from our books to support literacy. We donate our time to read to children. We donate copies of our books to libraries and schools. My husband has worked as a pediatrician for over 30 years caring for sick children. And despite all of this, I still feel we do not do enough. In our nation’s Capitol we have a school where the audio-visual screen is held up by a wire coat hanger.”

“Too far?” I want to ask him, “or not far enough?”

Let’s talk.