"Sixteen," the main character of the book is an M16 rifle just released into the world. Its first mission after Special Forces training was to vigorously suppress the protesting Gwangju citizens. Everybody gathered at the plaza was considered as the "Red" or commie rioter who was disrupting society in the eyes of Sixteen. It was trained that rebel forces were behind the protestors, who were spies, communists and rioters. But after personally experiencing the citizens at the plaza, it realized that the training and education it received were wrong. Those whom he considered  “rioters” and ruthlessly repressed were actually people with precious lives – citizens. The moment it realized this, Sixteen could no longer shoot them, and so shot its bullets in the air. And it stayed behind at the plaza while the military forces retreated to the outskirts of the city. It decided to follow its original mission: to protect the citizens.

Sixteen is a picture book that portrays the Korean May 18 Democracy Movement in a new light. Many people risked their lives standing up to repression and the cruel suppression of the democracy movement when forces of the military dictatorship extended martial law to the whole country. The convictions of Sixteen, the military rifle on the side of assailant during the May 18 Democracy Movement, which became the foundation for Korea’s democracy, start to waver and break down as it feels the power of the citizens. Through this change, the citizen’s resistance and fervor for democracy are more persuasively drawn.

Kwon Yoonduck, the author of Sixteen, has consistently written picture books that tell the truth about concealed or distorted history while also consoling victims. Flower Grandma dealt with comfort women for the Japanese army. Wood Stamp depicted the Jeju April 3 incident and Sixteen is about the Korean May 18 Democracy Movement. With the intense depiction of such sad history, peace and human rights and the value of solidarity are told in these picture books.