“How Did Waka Get His Boyfriend?” is a fun read about the life of Waka, a Maori man who moves to Australia. It’s a great story about getting to know a little about the culture of the native Masai, but unfortunately, it also has some very bad language that would make most readers cringe. It’s not really a great book for those who enjoy history and culture. I personally don’t enjoy reading history, but it’s alright for other people, but I definitely didn’t find this book to be interesting.
The book starts out with an interesting – and descriptive introduction about Waka’s arrival in Australia, and then moves into the detail of his friendship with Maori man Maori Flick. It seems like a good thing that they became friends since they both enjoyed each other’s company so much, but when you read the description of their first meeting, you can almost see the two men wanting to gang up on the other. In one scene they even mock each other in their native tongue. It seems like such a small thing, but if you haven’t read the book, it kind of ruins it for me.
What really bugged me about “How Did Waka Come to Be?” was the fact that they always made fun of him for not having any real talents. I guess that part was supposed to be in the book, but it was kind of annoying to read. Most of the time, they were making fun of him for being stupid, or for some other silly reason. And when he tried to get them to actually do something, it was almost impossible to get any result.
Another thing – I thought was kind of odd about this book is the fact that they seemed to think Waka was actually a boy, and not a girl. You know what I mean? It almost felt like they wanted to write a fantasy book where the main character was a little girl, or little boys. But I guess they were just trying to go with the times, and it worked pretty good, since most American kids believe that boys come from the girl’s skin and hair, and vice versa.
One of the main themes of this first book – is how people change over the years, and how that affects their relationships, as well. How did Waka come to be, only to live the rest of his life as a man? The journey of his relationship with his own brother, how they changed the family for the better, how Waka finally got the women he deserved, and what the future holds.
Overall, this was a fun book to read – I enjoyed the humor, the history, the culture, and overall just enjoying reading about the brothers. If you have a chance to pick up a copy of this first book, I would definitely recommend it.
I would recommend it to any young man that wants to get into a more traditional story, and has a strong appreciation for African art, and history.