The Kona Dog

By Ruth Zavitsanos

Akela, THE KONA DOG, brings a smile to everyone she meets. She is sweet and caring to all those working and visiting the coffee plantation and pineapple grove.

To please her master, Akela makes her rounds on the plantation, assuring safety and offering encouragement with her gentle ways. When the plantation is threatened with closure by the banker man, Akela and her master's older son, Keoki, join forces to enlist the banker's daughter Penny. Akela knows something makes the girl sad. If they get her to laugh and smile, perhaps they can save the plantation. But Penny isn't talking, and the plight of Akela's home doesn't look good either.

Faced with defeat and the loss of her home, Akela must use all of her bravery and instinctive abilities to bring everyone together. Can she soften their hearts in time to stop the banker man?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ruth Zavitsanos
• Release date: Jan 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370137336

Ruth Zavitsanos

Ruth G. Zavitsanos began writing at the age of 12. Growing up outside of New York City, she attended many Broadway plays and musicals that served to stimulate her imagination. While attaining her Journalism degree at Marshall University she received numerous writing awards. She has been published in Writer’s Digest magazine and had an in-depth article in Delaware Beach Life magazine. Ruth is a affiliated with a variety of writers groups. She is also a featured HuffPost Blogger. Sisters Inn has received five star reviews and is a popular book club read. She is currently working on writing novellas following the success of, Sight Unseen In the City, her first in her New York Through the Times Series. A Life Unfolds In the City is the second in the author’s NYTT Series. Her children’s chapter books, The Villa Dog (an Epic Award and a Main Line Today staff pick), The Old Fortress Dog and The Kona Dog (all third grade book club reads), have been embraced by children, parents and the educational community. Ruth’s fourth children’s chapter book, The Valley Forge Dog, a historical fiction, was recently released and is receiving five star reviews. Ruth enjoys bicycle riding, cooking, reading, music, photography, snorkeling, walks with her canine kids, and travel. Sharing her joy of writing with young students and encouraging them to put their imaginative stories on paper gives Ruth great satisfaction. She and her family reside outside of Philadelphia, PA in Chester County. She can be contacted at [e-mail]. Feel free to visit her website at www.ciaosummer.com.

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The Kona Dog Copyright © 2011 by Ruth G. Zavitsanos

Published by CiaoSummer Press

Cover Art and Illustrations by Cathy Peluso

Editor: Marci Baun

Layout by www.formatting4U.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Printed in The United States of America

KONA DOG acknowledgements:

Gabrielle Lily Madera for her drawing of the Gardenia. She truly captured the allure of this exceptional flower seen throughout Hawaii.

Allison N. Robertson a college student who so efficiently implemented her recent coursework that she made my editor’s job less time consuming.

Cathy Peluso, always the consummate artist for my children’s books, once again created an attractive cover and unique sketches to coincide with my story in THE KONA DOG.

Dedication

Dedicated to older siblings, cousins, special aunts and uncles who guide the younger ones with love and laughter. And special friends who offer us boundless love and share with us the best of times.

Chapter One

Every day is sunny and warm here on the island of Maui, one of eight main Hawaiian Islands. My nose stayed moist from the nearby sea air. It twitched with the scent of Kona coffee beans. I stood in the middle of the growing fields. This is where I live. When I sat tall, I could see where the Pacific Ocean meets the land lined with swaying palm trees. A golden ball, like a yellow crayon, paints everything brighter here. Sometimes it rains but not for very long. And often after the rain, the sky has a band of colors that arches its way from one end to the other. My master says this is called Anuenue (Ah-nooeh-nooeh) or Rainbow.

My master had been away from the island for a very long time. As I awaited his return, every time there was a rainbow I thought he would appear soon after. My master’s wife, Malia, waited many days for her happiness to return. He told her and all the workers at the coffee plantation that he would return with good news of a promising future.

The soft rain fell for the third time today. Another rainbow appeared before the bright ball in the sky pushed through the puffy white clouds.

That is the third rainbow today, Malia’s grown son, Keoki, said.

This is a good sign, Malia said. I heard the smile in her voice. And then my ears perked up, I turned my head and ran toward the rumbling sound of my master’s truck.

I barked again and again.

Yes, Akela, your master is finally home. Malia and Keoki