Kokopelli’s Flute, by Will Hobbs
Tepary Jones goes to Picture House, an Anasazi ruin, to watch the lunar eclipse. His vigil is interrupted by pothunters desecrating a medicine man’s grave. Tepary scares them away with burning tumbleweed and finds the eagle-bone flute they dropped during their escape. Tep plays the flute while a bushy-tailed woodrat watches him. Later, at home, Tepary changes into a woodrat.
This transformation continues to occur every night so Tepary sleeps by Picture House to protect his house and his father’s crops from his own gnawing teeth. His dog, Dusty, becomes his nocturnal companion and protector. They encounter the pothunters again; this time, woodrat chews their shoes and truck wires.
One morning, Tepary and Dusty return home to find Mrs. Jones very ill with Hantavirus. Cricket, an old man who had wandered onto the farm several days earlier, reveals himself as one of two Kokopellis that came to earth to give the people seeds. Cricket helps Tepary save his mother’s life with the medicine man’s ancient herbs.
Then, Kokopelli shows Tepary how to break the spell that transforms him each night.
(Additional Information: Tepary’s name comes from tepary beans which were an ancient superfood grown by pre-Columbian natives in southwestern United States and Mexico. In the book, the Jones family owns and operates a heritage seed farm somewhere in the southwest. Kokopelli, worshipped by many Native American tribes, is first and foremost a fertility deity, as well as a trickster, warrior, healer, and story teller.)
