This is exciting! Paradise to Paradise: The Rap Reiplinger Story is now in most public libraries across the state of Hawaiʻi. The Hawaiʻi State Public Library System ordered more than 40 copies of Rap’s biography, four of which are in reference sections of certain branches, including the Hawaiʻi State Library on South King Street in Honolulu. Other copies are available for check out at the main library and 32 other branches.
It’s great that the book is available for public lending, which makes it even more accessible to people in Hawaiʻi who want to learn more about the life and times of Rap! While checking for the book on the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System website, I was surprised and happy to see that Rap’s How You Figgah? is also in the library system. Rap was working on this book when we were married and Bess Press helped me get it published after Rap’s death with the help of talented illustrator Marilyn Kahalewai (see photo below of Marilyn with some of her adaptations of Rap’s sketches on a print layout for the book). Very cool that this book that Rap was so excited about is on Hawaiʻi library shelves some 35 years later.
Plans are for the original publisher, Bess Press (currently distributing Paradise to Paradise) to reissue – and possibly rework – How You Figgah? Stay tuned! #RapReiplinger
The cover of How You Figgah? published in 1985.
Illustrator Marilyn Kahalewai with a layout for Rap Reiplinger’s How You Figgah?