On Freddie's name: a lot of my library kids speak Tagalog at home, and you can't assume they're boys or girls based solely on their names. Some parents give their children American-sounding names so they fit in better, and miss the gender cues because English isn't their first language. It's not a big deal and nobody cares, it's not a thing the kids tease each other about. Mercado is a super common last name, and when she goes to college, people would just assume her name is Frederica (it's not, it's just Freddie).
I'm really enjoying this and looking forward to the finished version where I can read what all the animals are saying. Is that a roach on the window blind? Does Freddie have 6 brothers and sisters or is that just how many are in elementary school? I love that they all sleep together in a pile. And how does Png pronounce her name? I thought Tagalog was the language of the Philippines. So they speak it in Hawaii too? Or did I just get the Philippines part wrong?
ReplyDeleteAnswer as much or as little as you want, but please do tell me how to pronounce Png.
Thanks! I like hearing where the bits that need explanation are - I want this to be accessible to mainland audiences. Ng is pronounced "Ing", so she's "Ping", but spelled like a png file (because my 13 year old son thinks that's cool). You're right about Tagalog; we have a lot of Filipino families here on the North Shore. Other areas have other predominant languages - on Molokai you hear more Hawaiian, in Honolulu you hear more Japanese, etc. It's pretty fantastic. I'm basing the story in my own town, since that's the easiest place to wander around hearing local ghost stories and taking pictures. Will get back to the weird monster lady in the gulch later - that's the Green Lady of Wahiawa, a local child-eating folk story. Instead of using Hawaiian legends and offending people, I'm sticking to gossip, rumor, urban legend, and multi-cultural cryptozoology. A lot of monsters can sneak onto the barges. That's how we got rats. Someone found a possum on one of the cargo shipments recently. An ALLEGED possum. Could have been a chupacabra, right?
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