He blows on it. In case the ground counts as an altar.

It does not.

He picks it back up – he was moving to do that anyway, might as well have blown on it – and goes back to the skeleton/altar area, and puts it on the altar.

Assuming nothing happens to prevent him from doing so, he blows on it.

It lights up and changes color into a white-and-blue scheme. It glows faintly with a blueish glow.

Blink.

Does the book tell him what this means?

There is a new bookmark in his book, it's golden (the first one was red)! Glowing too.

It leads to a page titled "Know Your Totems" in elaborate cursive.

The page after that there is a picture of the small totem, under the name "smol air totem" and with the following description:

The weakest air totem, but it can produce a gust of wind that no human could with their lungs. Basic air manipulation. Single use.

… Any information for how he might make another of these?

None apparently, but the red bookmark is glowing again.

Poke.

"Goal complete!" says the voice and then there is a shower of sparkles around him and some of the bigger ones coalesce into a fraction of a sphere.

The line: "Goal: create an air totem. 0/1." flashes briefly and the zero turns into an one.

"Once I figured out how to make more of them," says Jones-voice, "I could experiment with them more freely. Still the totems took some practice getting used to. It might sound simple to just hold one in your hand and think 'I want a strong gust of wind' but you have to be careful where you aim them."

And again those words are transcribed in the page, followed by:

Goals:

• use an air totem to create wind. 0/1.
• use an air totem to create more air. 0/1.
• use an air totem to create a bigger air totem. 0/1. (Requires bigger empty-totem.)

Hint: search the island for more totem statues. Their mischievous spirits move them around when you are not looking, so always keep an eye out for them and don't forget to store them in your chest or in your tent.

Such a video game.

Does anything object if Anthony decides to lie on the sand in just his wet underwear and place the book and the other totem near himself on the sand? And then shut his eyes?

The voices in his head offer no comment. The sand is oddly soft now that he has time to appreciate it.

Hopefully he'll get a water totem sometime and won't need to try swimming his clothes over.

He gets up, washes off quickly in some shallow water near the edge of the island, and then looks around for more totem statues. If he can build up a stash, that'll be nice.

He finds another totem statue nearby, glowing beneath a bush, but the others don't make themselves as obvious as that. Some are in plain sight, but others are hidden under leaves and one was on the lower branches of a tree, none of them glow.

He finds a second type of totem, slightly bigger. Picking it up causes him to hear. "This looks very average, for a magical statue on a weird island."

"… No. No it really does not."

Can he put the not-average totem on the altar and blow on it?

It vibrates! ...and doesn't change or anything.

… Book? Any hints to do it without using an air totem? (Sigh.)

The book doesn't offer any obvious clues.

What if he waves the statue around. There's a lot of air there.

Nothing.

Sigh.

He transforms the other boring ones, then. Or whatever they were. Smol air totem.

(So weird.)

They are transformed normally. The sun is getting high.

Oh, good, it was morning. He has some time left before he has to deal with whatever temperature this place gets to at night.

Is there shelter of any kind on this island…?

Well, for certain definitions of shelter. There are plenty of shelters he has seen.

Also the pirate chest just materialized nearby while he wasn't looking.

… Of course it did.

He checks around a bit more and then decided he actually will in fact use a smol air totem to try to activate the larger one.

So he places the 'average' one on the altar and then tries to use the smol air totem to create wind in that direction. Hopefully it's two parts of the quest in one.