An annual challenge for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth is to choose an appropriate play for its youngest audiences — children younger than 5 who haven't yet begun to read.

The answer seems to be to tell them stories. Kids love stories, especially when the characters are sharp and clear and there is obvious action without unnecessary subtlety.

This year's successful choice is a new play written by HTY company members BullDog and Nara Cardenas. Longtime company actor Cynthia See delivers it in a warm solo performance, neatly pitched to engage the wiggly set.

"Tales of Old Hawai'i" is based on Roy Alameida's book of the same name — specifically, "The Legend of the Kua Kapa (kapa beater)." One might anticipate a series of children's plays to follow under the same collective title.

Playwrights BullDog and Cardenas punch up the original story of a girl who loses and finds her kapa beater into a wider discovery of her Hawaiian culture. BullDog directs and Cardenas contributes some minor original music.

See addresses the play's message in three parts.

The first part is an instructional prologue geared at settling the youngsters gathered around her on a wide lauhala mat. She introduces the kapa beater and the other tools that will appear in the play — rhythm stones, poi pounder and water gourd. She emphasizes the Hawaiian word for each one, making sure the kids can repeat it correctly, and gives each a distinctive sound.

The second part represents the first half of the action, in which a girl accidentally drops her kapa beater into a river and follows it as it drifts toward a large cave. Along the way, See rotates a quilted backdrop — a simply sewn patchwork picture of a hut and a river stretched over a metal frame that suggests a child's pop-up tent. As the girl moves up the river and the hut becomes smaller in the distance, See reaches into pockets sewn into the quilt to pull out the tools that play a part in the story.

In the third and last part, the girl finds the lost kapa beater in the possession of an old woman who won't give it up. As the girl disappointedly retraces her steps back home, she encounters the same tools. But this time each has a suggestively human face and teaches her a lesson.

"Remember the stories told by your elders, for they are your heritage."

"Work hard and follow the lessons you are taught."

"Share and help others. Take care of them and they'll take care of you."

While the message may seem preachy for the under-5 crowd, the hand puppets designed by BullDog and Cardenas — especially the gourd and poi pounder — add charm and animate the story as well as the tools.

See manages all of it with the calm aplomb of a favorite auntie — one who means business but loves her listeners.