Soonchild

Sixteen Face John has a problem; his unborn child, Soonchild, won't come out into the world because she cannot hear the World Songs, so Sixteen Face John must go on a quest to find them. Sixteen Face John gets help in his quest from the spirit world where he meets spirits tied to his past, his present, and the possible future. The book is eerie and very strange, many of the illustrations are downright creepy. Finding out if Sixteen Face John would succeed and just what would he succeed at is what kept me reading. For me, the book resonated with thoughts of the death of a culture and those struggling to keep to keep it alive by blending old ways with new ways. There were many times that phrases, or events in the book reminded me of things that I know about the Yupik culture here in Alaska. For instance, the Yupik people have very specific titles for how people are related to each other. The book read with the same cadence and pauses of a person whose first language is Yupik speaking English, and the sprinkling of modern phrases into their speech.