The Shark King: A Toon Book by R Kikuo Johnson, 39 pp, RL 1.5

Chapter One finds a young woman, Kalei combing the rocks for opihi (op-PEE-hi) which, Johnson tells us, is a "delicious sea snail." Suddenly, a massive wave is upon her, a wave that seems to have an enormous shark at the heart of it. However, instead of drowning, the young woman is pulled from the sea by a man who returns her opihi to her. As is often the way with mythological tales, a romance follows and soon a baby is on the way. One day Kalei's husband disappears, diving off the cliff, saying only, "I'm making a place for our son at the bottom of the pool." Then, the night before their son is born, he disappears for good, leaving his cape with Kalei, insisting that their son will need it one day.
Nanaue is born, healthy and full of life and with a giant appetite, but with a strange marking on his back. The pages that show Nanaue and Kalei's life on the island are so full of energy and joy that I read the pages over a couple of times. However, this idyllic life soon fades when other islanders discover these two and Nanaue finds he cannot contain his differences enough to keep them from being frightened by him. In the end, it is Nanaue's appetite that gets him into trouble and causes him to finally, desperately, need that mysterious place that his father made for him at the bottom of the pool.