YA Materials, Literature Log, Book #4: Code Talker

  Title: Code Talker

Author: Joseph Bruchac

Category: Multicultural


Ned Begay, a Navajo boy who has spent the last several years in a government boarding school known as a "mission school" designed to teach him to act as white citizens would, joins the marines upon finding out that they are recruiting Navajos who speak fluent English. Once past training, Ned finds that he has been recruited to send messages in a code developed by other Navajo men from the language he grew up speaking--the Navajo language that the mission school had attempted to beat out of him. The novel follows Ned through his service in the Pacific theatre of WWII.


I found this book to be written very simply, with very little character or emotional resonance. However, Buchac very obviously did a great deal of research in writing it, and as a result the novel is more fact--descriptions of battle strategy, the events of the war, and anecdotes about code talkers--than anything else. I think this could be useful for teens in teaching them about WWII stories that are not talked about much, especially when regarding the Pacific theatre.  

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