Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two

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Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 2,177 ratings · 445 reviews

After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.

Paperback, 240 pages

Published July 6th 2006 by Speak (first published March 17th 2005)

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Jun 01, 2011 Graham R rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: native-americans, navajos, world-war-2, war, startegie

This book was very interesting. It really gave me a good idea how much the Navajos helped the americans win world war 2. Also it gave me a really good idea of what the veterans were talking about who were in world war 2.

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Jun 11, 2007 Abby Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars

All his life Ned Begay has been told that being Navajo is bad. At the mission school, all the Navajos are told to forget their language, to forget everything about being Navajo. Speaking English and emulating the white man is the only way to get ahead, or so they are told. However, when World War II breaks out, Ned learns that the Marines are actively recruiting Navajos. For the first time, Americans are in need of Navajos and their language. An unbreakable code is being developed using the Nava...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Deborah Takahashi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen-historical-fiction

Ned Begay has not always be known as Ned. In fact, his name, in Navajo, has always been Kii Yazhi until he was shipped off to the mission to be educated by the White Man. Not only did he learn English, he was told it was wrong to be Navajo and was given the name of Ned Begay, his hair cut, and clothes taken away. Although he felt empty and naked, he made a promise to himself that he would never forget his native language even if the White Man tried to beat it out of him. Not only did Ned excel i...more Ned Begay has not always be known as Ned. In fact, his name, in Navajo, has always been Kii Yazhi until he was shipped off to the mission to be educated by the White Man. Not only did he learn English, he was told it was wrong to be Navajo and was given the name of Ned Begay, his hair cut, and clothes taken away. Although he felt empty and naked, he made a promise to himself that he would never forget his native language even if the White Man tried to beat it out of him. Not only did Ned excel in school, he actually went off high school by working hard and keeping his mouth shut. He loved to read and he loved to speak Navajo with his friends, away from his teachers, and everything was going quite well until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. At the age of sixteen, Ned joined the US Marines and is assigned a top secret assignment--he became one of the first Navajo Code Talkers who would not only decipher American messages during battle, but send messages in the line of duty in Navajo. All his life he thought the Navajo would continued to be ignored; however, with the country at war, the Navajo are the nation's most treasured asset.

Told as a memoir, Ben Negay is telling his grandchildren about his time as a US Marine Code Talker. Although Ben may be addressing his own grandchildren, readers will believe that he is actually speaking to anyone who wants to hear about his story. Not only is this story personal, it incredibly moving where readers are enveloped in the story. Moreover, when Ben talks about his time in the Pacific, the battle scenes are so well written that all we can imagine what it is like fighting of bullets and bombs while running in the boiling jungle. Another amazing aspect of this story is the relationships that Ben establishes, especially with those who are assigned as his security force; soldiers were actually give orders to protect the Navajo code talkers not only from the enemy but from friendly fire (one code talker was shot by a friendly because he looked Japanese). One detail that readers will also experience is how difficult waiting is during war time. Ben makes it very clear that this is the hardest thing he had ever have to go through and, teenagers being teenagers, patience is not one of their virtues.

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Mar 13, 2009 Karin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: native-americans, 2008-caudill-nominees, historical-fiction, realistic, world-war-2, books-for-boys, navajo-indians, borrowed-from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In this fictional account of the Navajo code-talkers of World War II, Ned Begay becomes one of the Marines involved in a top-secret communications project. He’s only sixteen when he joins the war effort and he’s had to endure years of mission school where his teachers strongly encouraged him to forget his native tongue. Ned, however, continues to speak it secretly whenever he can because he feels his language and culture are important. Now, the US Government has decided it needs native speakers...more In this fictional account of the Navajo code-talkers of World War II, Ned Begay becomes one of the Marines involved in a top-secret communications project. He’s only sixteen when he joins the war effort and he’s had to endure years of mission school where his teachers strongly encouraged him to forget his native tongue. Ned, however, continues to speak it secretly whenever he can because he feels his language and culture are important. Now, the US Government has decided it needs native speakers of Navajo to help in the war effort.

Because radio signals can be overheard by enemy troops, it’s important to use a code that makes what they overhear impossible to interpret. Since Navajo is a particularly difficult language to learn and because so few people know it, it is chosen as the language for the code-talkers. Ned and the other Navajo undergo basic training and then receive special training in radio communications and code-making. Together, these Navajo create a code using the Navajo language, and the code is then used to communicate between units.

Ned and the other Indians face many horrors while they are at war. They form close bonds among themselves and among the other US Marines. Many people die, and many more are injured – physically and mentally – in the war. Even after it is all over, the code-talkers are sworn to secrecy about the special duties they performed in the war. It was only many years later that the code-talkers were declassified.

This was a really good introduction to the code-talkers – they have received a lot of attention recently in books for adults and in movies and documentaries. I’m not sure about the effectiveness of Ned telling his story as an older man – all of the asides to his grandchildren were a bit distracting (especially toward the end). It probably would have as great or greater an impact coming from Ned as a young man, first person, with maybe an epilogue about the eventual declassification. I wondered about the wisdom of revealing the code, but perhaps there are better/different encryption means that I’m not aware of, and/or enough time has passed that Navajo has been studied extensively by people in other countries, so it may no longer be the unbreakable code that it was. There are lots of topics covered that should get kids a-wonderin’ – code-talkers, Navajos, American Indians, code making/breaking, espionage, war. (less)

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Dec 28, 2008 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-historical

I highly recommend! This is really a sensitive, balanced, well researched account of the Navajos who developed a code which the Japanese were unable to crack. The story becomes alive and real through the fictional protanongist. It is ironic that historical fiction can be more real than just dry history. Although it is dealing with a horrendous war, it is not overly morbid nor gruesome, nor does it glorify war or heroism. The author is sentive to the spiritual as well as physical cost of war and...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars

Code Talkers by Joseph Bruchac is an inspiriting book about brave and heroic Navajo Indians, who sacrificed their lives for their country during the struggle against the Japanese in World War II. This book is a good, well written book. I would most certainly recommend it to a friend or a family member. I enjoyed reading this book, but it is not my favorite. However it is better than many of the books I read. This book is good for people interested in military strategies and American history.
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Apr 16, 2013 Lucas rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Joseph Bruchac's Code Talker, the protagonist, Ned Begay, joins the U.S. Marines in defense of America in WWII after suffering through boarding school and the abuse of his language that comes with it. Begay fights in various battles although he is a fictitious character with fictitious friends. I, personally, felt I was being told me history by my grandfather. I felt as if I was learning about my family, not about history. I felt like I was on the beaches of Iwo Jima or on the landing crew at...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Jerome rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read this about four years ago in seventh grade. I was starting to get into military history back then, and this book was actually really good for a YA novel about war.

Bruchac has created a terrific historic novel that has enough action for young male adults and enough history and research to appeal to an adult audience. Bruchac does a wonderful job of giving a sense of the complexities of growing up on a Navajo reservation in the first half of the book. The irony of a nation trying to wipe out...more Read this about four years ago in seventh grade. I was starting to get into military history back then, and this book was actually really good for a YA novel about war.

Bruchac has created a terrific historic novel that has enough action for young male adults and enough history and research to appeal to an adult audience. Bruchac does a wonderful job of giving a sense of the complexities of growing up on a Navajo reservation in the first half of the book. The irony of a nation trying to wipe out the Navajo language but using it as a crucial means of communication during 20th century wars should not be lost on the reader while reading the second half of the book. Bruchac's narrator tells this tale in an even-keeled, even-tempered manner. The reader is allowed to gain his own sense of injustice our nation has inflicted upon its Native American population. Bruchac's description of the progression of America's involvement in World War II's Pacific campaign is well laid-out and dramatically presented. Highly recommended.

This book is brilliant. It is non-fiction, but the author turned the story into a masterpiece. This book is about a native American named Ned Begay , who is taken from his family when he was young, and put in a boarding school. He grows up, learns English, and joins the army. He is a special person; a Navajo. The Navajo language was used as a code in World War Two. The Japanese enemies could figure out any code in less than a week, so the U.S. Marines needed a language that had never been studied or known of. The earlier unbreakable code was the white code, but it took four hours to send a message that the Navajo code could send in 2.5 minutes.

Every part of this book is in complete detail, and is very specific. Joseph Bruchac is the award-winning author of more than 100 books, most of which draw upon aspects of his Native American heritage. Among other honors, he has won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award for his enduring contribution to the field of multicultural literature for children. He lives in Greenfield Center, New York. I would have given this book three stars, but I remembered a really creepy and funny part of the book: when a dead soldier comes back to life... on his own! The author didn't make the story boring, or tweak it up to make it sound more modern, he just wrote a true breath-taking, action-packed, amazing novel about the World War Two Navajos. Ned Begay has a ton of adventures throughout the book. He makes some friends, some of them die, some get seriously injured, some just manage to stay alive. He actually meets John F. Kennedy! He doesn't kill anyone (which in my opinion isn't very cool) but he does encounter some rotting corpses.

This book may get boring in some places, but as soon as you want to put it down, it starts to get good again. I recommend this book to people who like historical non-fiction (AKA history), and everybody who enjoys reading. I really loved this book because it's so hooking. I love the way Joseph Bruchac describes everything with such detail. I don't know how he found out so much about World War Two, but I like it. It took me several weeks to read Code Talker, but it was as satisfying as the blurb said it would be. It is one of the best books I have ever read. The Navajos were really important people during the war, so I think you'll be impressed when you read a story written just about them.(less)

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Dec 09, 2012 Cameron added it

The "Code Talker" is a book about Navajo's during World War II. The main character is a Navajo that is fluent in both English and the language of the Navajo's which he calls the sacred or pure language. His younger years are spent at boarding school or on the preservation where the Navajo live in poverty and aren't treated well by other Americans. But after Pearl Harbor he wants to enlist into the Marines and does as soon as it was made possible. To make the code process faster and more effectiv...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Dorothea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Code Talker is a historical novel for a YA audience, told from the perspective of fictional character Ned Begay as (finally released from U.S. security regulations by the invention of computers that have replaced the Navajo code) he tells his grandchildren about his experience as a code talker in WWII.

It's very plainly written, but that's not a bad thing because the story of the code talkers is so interesting it doesn't need any help. There are some very effective parts which make a connection b...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Ms. Okes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Code Talker is a wonderful book, describing the secret role Navajo Marines played in World War 2 by using their native language to send coded messages to allied forces. Although the narrator is fictional, his experiences are representative of actual Navajos as they were taught and then recruited to the Marines for their important task.
I appreciate that the author chose to begin with the white man's education many Navajo children endured. This education served as a retraining; Indians were taugh...more

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May 30, 2012 07Austing rated it 3 of 5 stars

My report is on Code Talkers. I liked this book when I read it. It is about a Navajo Indian named Ned Begay and his journey from boarding school to the marines. It takes place around the 1940’s, during world war two. I liked this book.

The story begins when Ned Begay is sent off the reservation that he has grown up on to go to a government run boarding school. He is taken there by his mustached uncle who tells him about the history of the Navajo people, from the Mexicans to the Americans mistre...more My report is on Code Talkers. I liked this book when I read it. It is about a Navajo Indian named Ned Begay and his journey from boarding school to the marines. It takes place around the 1940’s, during world war two. I liked this book.

The story begins when Ned Begay is sent off the reservation that he has grown up on to go to a government run boarding school. He is taken there by his mustached uncle who tells him about the history of the Navajo people, from the Mexicans to the Americans mistreating them to the fact that Ned is the first of their family to go to school. His uncle drops him off at the school, where he meets several new people who tell him who their families are until a white man approaches them and yells at them to stop speaking Navajo. They are forced to give up their jewelry and clothes and are given uniforms. They are forced to speak only English, are given poor food rations, and are beaten if they speak English. Several of his friends test this. One is also chained up in the cellar for three days. As he progresses in school, however, the teachers become nicer. Several also tell him he is the smartest Indian they have ever met, though Ned realizes that they don’t think Indians are smarter than white people. Then Pearl Harbor gets attacked. After they hear it on the radio, they start panicking. When the recruiter for the marines comes around, Ned immediately wants to join. But his parents make him wait one more year to join, and he agrees. After one year had passed, he begs his parents again to let him join the marines.

When he joins he is taken to Camp Williams for basic training, where the Navajos excel at manual labor similar to the life they had back home. The only part they struggled with was the swimming test. After a few mishaps and bumps, they are relocated to a secured location, where they are taught the code, created by the first Navajos who came through the camp. Then Ned Begay discovers why they are needed: the Americans need an unbreakable code so that the Japanese can’t decipher their messages.
I liked this book and thought that the story was pretty good. It isn't very descriptive, though it is on a fifth-grade reading level. I would reccomend it to anyone who wants a quick read, but not a lot of useless details or descriptions.(less)

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May 23, 2012 Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, history, read-in-2012

I love, love, love the voice of this novel. It is well written and completely in character. Unfortunately, because this is the story a Navajo man is telling to his grandchildren, I feel like we miss some of the emotional resonance of his experiences in WWII. When someone is wounded, they usually either get better or have the horror of their injuries marginalized and made more palatable. Hardship, suffering, and death are mentioned, but named characters make it through. Practically the only perma...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Jane added it

Shelves: middle-school-multicultural

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 17, 2012 Hunter Morris rated it 3 of 5 stars

this is a novel about the Navajo marines of world war two. they had a very secret job to talk in navajo to send code messages to soldiers around the world that are fighting war. the acts of world war one made the Japanese study study English and Cherokee so the marines have to use navajo language so that the Japanese cant decode their messages. the story follows ned begay as he is a young boy and enlist into the marines and becomes a code talker on the front lines. the book was done really well...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Daniel T. added it

Shelves: finished-irp

Code Talker is a novel about the navajo marines that were tasked with translating top secret information into their sacred language. This book is about a young navajo named Khi Yahzee. The book starts off explaining him as an old war veteran telling his story to his grandchildren. Then it cuts back to him as a young child in his village, then being taken to a school. Where he was treated awful, being told his people are all bad and that he would never amount to anything. Then it talked about wh...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Sam Richins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac is a Novel about the Navajo Code Talkers enlisted in the army of the United States during World War 2. This book shows the determination and courage of the protagonist. A Navajo, Kii Yazhi (Later Ned Begay) goes through troubles, having his culture beat out of him for ten years, and is then told how special it is. He then joins the U.S. Marines, and becomes a code talker, helping hugely in our success in WWII. He talks about at least half of a dozen battles he was...more

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Jul 04, 2011 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: level-elementary

7/3/11 ** A very interesting novel about a Navajo teen who enlisted in the Marines shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack; he joined a secret unit charged with creating and using a code based on the Navajo language to send messages throughout the Pacific theater. The story touches on issues with the Indian Schools, language extinction, stereotypes & cultural awareness, the irony of a government trying to stamp out a language and then needing it for military security, etc. However, even with t...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Taliah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: multicultural-youth-lit

This book is based on actual events of the how Navajo Marines contributed in WWII. It is told in the voice of a former Navajo Marine telling his story to young Navajos and readers. Kii Yazhi is sent away to boarding school, where he is renamed Ned Begay. Begay's time at the school was traumatic as he was forced to give up his language, in front of white people anyway. Although he was required to give up many Navajo ways, Begay succeeded academically. Due to academic achievement, Begay was able t...more

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May 23, 2011 Isaac Braun rated it 4 of 5 stars

In the book Code Talker, I true story of the Navajo Marines living pre and post WWII time and their role in helping the US win the war in Japan. Nobody knew of these men until many years after the war because of the secrecy of the missions and jobs they did. The Author tells the story of a young man by the name of Ned Begay and how he survived WWII as a marine code talker. Navajo men were chosen to pass communications in their non-written language making it unbreakable to the Japanese. It was to...more In the book Code Talker, I true story of the Navajo Marines living pre and post WWII time and their role in helping the US win the war in Japan. Nobody knew of these men until many years after the war because of the secrecy of the missions and jobs they did. The Author tells the story of a young man by the name of Ned Begay and how he survived WWII as a marine code talker. Navajo men were chosen to pass communications in their non-written language making it unbreakable to the Japanese. It was told in first person point of view with the writing pointed to his grandchildren at times telling them what things meant back when he was serving in the war. An example is on Page 82, he said “Now, grandchildren, when I say we were proud I do not mean that we became self-important. We did not go around thinking we were better than everyone else”. He was referring to earlier when they learned their real part in the war, that being code talking for the US communications. A book that could be comparable to this novel would be, Fallen Angles, which is how I got into this book. They both are stories told from a marine serving in an American war and how they got started and what life was like for them. It doesn’t start out in the war like most war books like it. It starts out with him as a young boy who is going to a white speaking school like his uncle did and learning English. He got interested in other countries and especially in Japan after reading a bout about them in geography books he found in the library. His dream in life was to visit Japan and that came in the means of WWII. Throughout the book you learn how the native Navajo Indians lived and what they expect from one another. He meets many people along the way that teach him what its like to be an American and be proud of their country. By the middle of the book you feel like you’ve lived his whole life and are walking next to him learning all this first hand. This is a great book for any teenager wanted to learn more then just battles fought during WWII.
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Apr 16, 2011 Miz Lizzie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, japan, native-american, realistic-fiction, religion, secrets, usa, world-war-ii, young-adult, arizona, southwest

The 2011 OneBookAZ for Kids is Joseph Bruchac's Code Talker about the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. Though the main character and narrator is fictional, the novel is based on extensive research, including oral histories with the code talkers and their families. As a result, it does sometimes read more like oral history than a novel. That is not a defect; the realistic underpinnings may make the tale less of a page-turner but they do not dampen the intrinsic drama of the actual events....more The 2011 OneBookAZ for Kids is Joseph Bruchac's Code Talker about the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. Though the main character and narrator is fictional, the novel is based on extensive research, including oral histories with the code talkers and their families. As a result, it does sometimes read more like oral history than a novel. That is not a defect; the realistic underpinnings may make the tale less of a page-turner but they do not dampen the intrinsic drama of the actual events. One of the best things about the novel is that it is completely grounded in Navajo culture and language. Ned Begay's story starts the day he is taken to Indian Boarding School where he is shorn of his Indian identity and punished for speaking the Navajo language. The irony that the United States wins the war in the Pacific in part through the use of the very language and culture it sought to eradicate to create a code the Japanese could not break is not lost here. While the main character is fictional, all of the other Navajo code talkers mentioned are real and pieces of their stories are incorporated into the text. An invaluable book for the detail of the struggle in the Pacific during World War II. Bruchac not only illuminates the little known history of the code talkers but gives a balanced and compassionate overview of the Japanese situation before and during the war and reveals the struggles of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands during the war. He also celebrates the continuing perseverance and value of indigenous culture and language in the United States despite all we as a people and government have done to try to stamp them out.

Book Pairings: Warriors in the Crossfire by Nancy Bo Flood about the Pacific Islanders during World War II would be a great companion to this book. Books about contemporary Native American teens like Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian would be a great follow-up as well. Joseph Bruchac also provides a selected bibliography for non-fiction books about code talkers, World War II, and Navajos.(less)

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Mar 29, 2011 Ron Burgandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

At the beginnig of this book the main character goes into the army because he is of navajo decent and their language is very tough, almost impossible to decode. so, him and the other navajos go through boot camp and do it fairly easy. one of the last things that they have to do is run through the desert with the americans in boot camp. while the americans are getting tired and thirsty, the navajos know a secret that there is water in small cacti. so the navajos are known as super humans. the mai...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars

This historical fiction novel follows the experiences of Ned Begay as told to his grandchildren many years after the fact. He starts by explaining his experiences at a boarding school where the teachers did everything they could to strip the students of their Navajo identity. Ned survives by becoming the model student, on the outside, but sneaking around with some of the other students, he manages to keep his language skills. Later, as he works his way through high school dealing with racist tre...more

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Jul 28, 2009 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

This historical novel allows its readers to walk alongside a young Navajo man of World War II era, as the events of his life take him from the reservation school which teaches him that his native language should be dismissed, to his participation in the war as a person who transmitted information from one command post to another using a secret code that the Japanese and Germans, when intercepting those messages, could never break. The code was his native language; the one he had been told to for...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Jennifer Conrad rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, good-for-boys, war-lit

This is one of those books that I've been meaning to read for a while. I was especially intrigued because I've had 4-5 boys (the kind who were always telling me they hated reading) read it and be really excited about the story as they did their book talks about it. I also wanted to read it because I feel I haven't read much by Native American/American Indian authors.

The story is a fictional retelling of the experiences of a WWII Navajo "code talker". The narrator is telling his story to his gran...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Roger DeBlanck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult-books

Joseph Bruchac is a prolific chronicler of Native American history for young readers. In his YA novel Code Talker, he honors the major contributions of the Navajos to the WWII efforts, as they developed the unbreakable Navajo code to send messages during the great conflict in the South Pacific. Bruchac’s story serves as both an accurate history lesson and an emotional remembrance of the Navajos, whose story remained classified for over twenty-five years after the war. He outlines their recruitme...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Anne Crotty rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-lit

Code Talker is well written novel based on actual historical events. At the start of the story we meet Kii Yazhi. He is a young Navajo Indian headed off to boarding school to try and learn the “white man’s ways” Kii must “Americanize his name so he is renamed Ned Begay. Ned vows to secretly hold on to his Native American language and ways in spite of the school’s efforts to strip them from his memory and replace them with the ways of the white man.
The story is told in the form of flash back. Th...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Christen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

This book is excellent on so many levels. It provides a point of view about World War II from a rarely heard quarter of America, namely the Navajos. The narrative is interesting in an of itself, as told by Ned Begay, who reflects on his years as a code talker in the Pacific. It gives the history of the war, dips into the racism that Navajos endured, but celebrates their culture despite the ignorance and hatred they encountered. Great multicultural read, historical narrative and just plain good a...more This book is excellent on so many levels. It provides a point of view about World War II from a rarely heard quarter of America, namely the Navajos. The narrative is interesting in an of itself, as told by Ned Begay, who reflects on his years as a code talker in the Pacific. It gives the history of the war, dips into the racism that Navajos endured, but celebrates their culture despite the ignorance and hatred they encountered. Great multicultural read, historical narrative and just plain good adventure. Ned comes alive as the protagonist, his humor and forthright way of speaking make him endearing.

I have noticed in the books I’ve read by Native Americans that they have a similar dignified cadence in their style of writing that I find I fall right into. Bruchac has the same rhythmic quality and he also addresses his audience directly, which is another similarity with other novels I have read. It’s a big contrast to how Laurie Halse Anderson writes, for example, which is more choppy and she uses words like cheerleaders use jazz hands. Both styles of writing work in YA fiction, and since they are both trying to accomplish something different. Anderson wants to put you in the mind of a contemporary teen, while Bruchac/Ned Begay is narrating the experience of his people during a certain time period. He tells it through the eyes of a teenager, who leaves his family and community behind to fight a war. It almost sounds like any fantasy you’d pick up!

Although historical fiction is not all that popular, students are interested in WWII. This book stands out because it details a secret branch of the Marines. Who doesn’t love a secret? Code Talkers is significant as a multicultural novel, as well, as Ned describes his upbringing, contact with white Americans, and his reflections on race. He’s never condemning and I found the reading to be humbling rather than shaming. It is a war novel, but also a call for peace. This book certainly has a place in any YA collection.
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Mar 30, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, historical-fiction

I absolutely loved this book! I read it because it's a new novel for the Read180 classroom. I had no familiarity with the novel or the author. Who should I recommend it to?

I ended up devouring the book during every break I had. The intermixing of historical fact with historical fiction is amazing. I learned about Indian Missionary Schools and World War II from the same point of view. I found myself comparing his description of Missionary School with Boot Camp for the Marines. There really didn't...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Candy Wood added it

Shelves: children-s-ya

Bruchac’s author’s note at the end mentions that his first draft was too full of facts, and the published version still has more facts and dates than are consistent with a grandfather’s telling of his experiences to children. The story of the Navajo code talkers of World War II is certainly worth telling, and beginning with the narrator’s first leaving the reservation to go to boarding school provides interesting and meaningful context. It’s no wonder that he emphasizes the irony of a situation...more

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About Joseph Bruchac

Joseph Bruchac lives with his wife, Carol, in the Adirondack mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the same house where his maternal grandparents raised him. Much of his writing draws on that land and his Abenaki ancestry. Although his American Indian heritage is only one part of an ethnic background that includes Slovak and English blood, those Native roots are the ones by wh...more Joseph Bruchac lives with his wife, Carol, in the Adirondack mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the same house where his maternal grandparents raised him. Much of his writing draws on that land and his Abenaki ancestry. Although his American Indian heritage is only one part of an ethnic background that includes Slovak and English blood, those Native roots are the ones by which he has been most nourished. He, his younger sister Margaret, and his two grown sons, James and Jesse, continue to work extensively in projects involving the preservation of Abenaki culture, language and traditional Native skills, including performing traditional and contemporary Abenaki music with the Dawnland Singers.

He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. His work as a educator includes eight years of directing a college program for Skidmore College inside a maximum security prison. With his wife, Carol, he is the founder and Co-Director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and The Greenfield Review Press. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift. His poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from American Poetry Review, Cricket and Aboriginal Voices to National Geographic, Parabola and Smithsonian Magazine. He has authored more than 70 books for adults and children, including The First Strawberries, Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), Tell Me a Tale, When the Chenoo Howls (co-authored with his son, James), his autobiography Bowman's Store and such novels as Dawn Land, The Waters Between, Arrow Over the Door and The Heart of a Chief. Forthcoming titles include Squanto's Journey (Harcourt), a picture book, Sacajawea (Harcourt), an historical novel, Crazy Horse's Vision (Lee & Low), a picture book, and Pushing Up The Sky (Dial), a collection of plays for children. His honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Knickerbocker Award, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature and both the 1998 Writer of the Year Award and the 1998 Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.

As a professional teller of the traditional tales of the Adirondacks and the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Joe Bruchac has performed widely in Europe and throughout the United States from Florida to Hawaii and has been featured at such events as the British Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for Native American organizations and schools throughout the continent, including the Institute of Alaska Native Arts and the Onondaga Nation School. He discusses Native culture and his books and does storytelling programs at dozens of elementary and secondary schools each year as a visiting author.
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“Strong words outlast the paper they are written upon. ” — 28 people liked it

“Never think that war is a good thing, grandchildren. Though it may be necessary at times to defend our people, war is a sickness that must be cured. War is a time out of balance. When it is truly over, we must work to restore peace and sacred harmony once again.” — 12 people liked it

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title link	preview: Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/175395.Code_Talker?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309198585l/175395.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/175395.Code_Talker?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac[/url]

Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two

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