'Readers who choose the book for the attraction of Navajo code talking and the heat of battle will come away with more than they ever expected to find.' - Booklist, starred review 'With its multicultural themes and well-told WWII history, this will appeal to a wide audience.' - Kirkus Reviews, starred review 'Bruchac's gentle prose presents a clear historical picture of young men in wartime, island hopping across the Pacific, waging war in the hells of Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and Iwo Jima.

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults 'Nonsensational and accurate, Bruchac's tale is quietly inspiring.'- School Library Journal This deeply affecting novel honors all of those young men, like Ned, who dared to serve, and it honors the culture and language of the Navajo Indians. His grueling journey is eye-opening and inspiring. But now Joseph Bruchac brings their stories to life for young adults through the riveting fictional tale of Ned Begay, a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy who becomes a code talker. Yet their story remained classified for more than twenty years. They braved some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with their code, they saved countless American lives.

effort, sending messages back and forth in an unbreakable code that used their native language. In his own words: “I tried very hard to neither glorify war nor demonize the enemy, but to see it all through Indian eyes, which is a very different way of seeing.'Readers who choose the book for the attraction of Navajo code talking and the heat of battle will come away with more than they ever expected to find.'- Booklist, starred review Throughout World War II, in the conflict fought against Japan, Navajo code talkers were a crucial part of the U.S. Bruchac deftly sheds light on the harrowing circumstances that Indigenous people faced during an already arduous time period. Thought-provoking and action-packed, Code Talker is narrated by Ned, now an elderly grandfather, recounting his struggles as a young man called to fight for a country that marginalized him throughout his entire life. Bruchac’s narrative following fictional Navajo Marine Ned Begay weaves more than two decades’ worth of research into a dramatization of the real story of the group who helped the Allied forces win the war by using their tribal language to send secret, uncrackable messages across battlefields in the Pacific theater. In his acclaimed 2005 novel, prolific author Joseph Bruchac, winner of the Native Writers Circle of the Americas’ Lifetime Achievement Award, brings to life the extraordinary story of the Navajo code talkers of World War II.

Code talker bruchac