Locals know when the seasons change in Hawai'i. And they know that there are only two: One that is wet and cool and one that is sunny and dry.

They know winter for its lush green shades on Diamond Head, for its thundershowers from the south and its huge surf from the north.

They know summer is here when the mangoes ripen, bon dances enliven the evening and the weather is so hot that only a shave ice will cool them.

But in elementary classrooms across the Islands, the changing seasons have long been explained with a Mainland bias — four seasons, golden autumns, snowmen in winter. It's a lesson plan that University of Hawai'i educator Stephanie Feeney found galling for so many years that she finally wrote a children's book about it.

In "Sun and Rain: Exploring Seasons in Hawai'i," (University of Hawai'i Press, $13.95), Feeney explains a variety of subtle changes found only in the Islands. This is Feeney's fourth children's book.

The power of learning is best harnessed through experience, she said.

"It is good to teach things to young children that they can directly experience," said Feeney, professor emerita in the Department of Curriculum Studies. "And since they are not directly experiencing the snowmen and the autumn leaves, they are basically meaningless."

A Los Angeles native, Feeney came to the Islands 35 years ago and ever since has argued with teachers who clung to traditional, Mainland texts.

"I've been threatening to do this book for years," she said. "The textbooks have four seasons, and the teachers teach the four seasons. I had one teacher tell me they have to learn about it. I said, 'Why do they? They don't experience it.' "

The slender book uses photographs by the late David Boynton and his wife Sue, Ron Dahlquist, Moku Kaaloa, Melissa Kim Mosher and Jeff Reese. It was designed by Barbara Pope.

The photographs give children a look at places, events and things that will help them distinguish one season from the other. A section at the end also advises teachers and parents how to explain the concept of seasons.

Mosher, an educator for 30 years, said Feeney has given children the feeling that they can understand and explore the environment they call home.

"Stephanie has written a brilliant book," she said. "The things on these pages will generate many, many questions for children."

But the book might be just as useful for adults, especially newcomers.

The seasons in Hawai'i can be so subtle that you can miss them if you're not paying attention, said Maile Meyer, owner of Native Books/Na Mea Hawai'i.

"Hawai'i calls upon your observation skills and your intuitive biorhythms, to say, my god, something feels different and I am seeing a bird I didn't see last week, or the water temperature is cooler," Meyer said.

Sam Gon III, a Hawaiian cultural historian and resource specialist for the Nature Conservancy, likes the idea of a book that explains the signs of the seasons because many are hard to spot, even when you're looking right at them.

"When you notice the golden shower trees going off, brilliant yellow, in places you didn't notice them before, suddenly it stands out," he said. "There are all kinds of fun things, and they are all related. If you are really observant you might pick it up, but it could take years."

Feeney said Hawai'i's children are being taught that someone else's life — someone else's seasons — is more important. They needed a book to validate what they were seeing and feeling in their tiny, tropical home.

"I also realized that the seasons in the place you grow up become a part of your memories and your identity," she said. "To deny our children the reality of their experience, and to teach them about someone else's experience, makes no sense."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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