{"id":31516,"date":"2025-07-02T03:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31516\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T03:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:11:15","slug":"from-map-maker-to-author-uh-alumnus-publishes-first-childrens-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/31516\/","title":{"rendered":"From map maker to author: UH alumnus publishes first children\u2019s book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading time: 2 minutes<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Gary Rockwood Jr., a University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa alumnus, released his first book, The Blue Jay Comes Home<\/a>. The children\u2019s book tells the true story of a blue jay returning to its rescuer.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Rockwood\u2019s cat carried an injured baby blue jay back to their house. Rockwood and his family cared for it before taking it to a local animal shelter 12 miles away for better care.<\/p>\n

After about a month at the shelter, the bird was released, and a few weeks later, Rockwood noticed a blue jay in his backyard. He and his family suspected this was the baby bird they rescued more than a month before, and named it Little Bird.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t really believe it,\u201d Rockwood said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how they found their way back to my place 12 miles away, specifically in my backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unexpected experience hatches nurturing story<\/p>\n

After his experience, Rockwood sat on the story for about a year. But, knowing he had a fulfilling story to tell, he started drafting the first parts of the book in 2023, until it was complete the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never envisioned myself writing a book, but I just felt like I needed to tell this story because it was so interesting,\u201d Rockwood said.<\/p>\n

Through his book, Rockwood wants readers to understand the importance of nurturing animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message that I want for children is to take care of animals and nurture them,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you take care of them, they\u2019ll take care of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journey to UH M\u0101noa and beyond<\/p>\n

Rockwood moved to Hawai\u02bbi in the third grade, where he lived on Schofield Barracks and then in Mililani before graduating from Leilehua High School.<\/p>\n

\"GaryGary Rockwood Jr. with his book, The Blue Jay Comes Home<\/p>\n

At UH M\u0101noa, he studied geography and cartography, while also swimming for the UH M\u0101noa men\u2019s swimming and diving team. In his senior year, Rockwood was voted as team captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing at UH was one of the best times of my life,\u201d Rockwood said. \u201cI had to balance being an athlete, but it helped that my teammates were like family to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from UH in 1992, he started work as a cartographer in California and then settled in Chicago, where he and his family would eventually encounter the injured baby blue jay.<\/p>\n

Little Bird still visits the family\u2019s backyard to feed, but is now accompanied by three other birds, who Rockwood assumes are Little Bird\u2019s mate and two offspring.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the positive reactions he\u2019s getting from those who\u2019ve read his book, Rockwood is considering writing a second book about Little Bird\u2019s growing family that stills visits his backyard to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew this was such a fulfilling and intriguing story that needed to be told,\u201d Rockwood said.<\/p>\n

\u2014By Grant Nakasone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading time: 2 minutes Gary Rockwood Jr., a University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa alumnus, released his first book,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[24370,26630,26626,3601,13978,1022,26624,171,26618,26621,26622,26625,26619,26627,26620,26629,67,132,26623,26628,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-31516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-alumni","9":"tag-alumni-recognition","10":"tag-alumnus","11":"tag-author","12":"tag-book","13":"tag-books","14":"tag-childrens-book","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-gary-rockwood-jr","17":"tag-hawaii","18":"tag-manoa","19":"tag-the-blue-jay-comes-home","20":"tag-uh","21":"tag-uh-alumnus","22":"tag-uh-manoa","23":"tag-uh-manoa-alumnus","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-university-of-hawaii","27":"tag-university-of-hawaii-author","28":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114781453525647303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}