Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

 This is a novel written for young adults (or really middle school age). I'm not sure if there is an "adult" version of this same book. (There is an adult version of Unbroken and a young adult version of Unbroken, which I just found out about, for example.) This is a historical fiction book about the Navajo Marines in World War II and the use of the Navajo language to write messages in code so the enemy could not decipher them.

The book starts with Ned Begay being taken from his family at a young age to be sent to a boarding school. The boarding school tries very hard to wipe the Navajo culture and language from these young children's lives. Pure assimilation into English America is the goal. The children are punished if caught talking in the Navajo language. As World War II starts affecting America, Ned decides he wants to go to war. He is too young to enlist, so he waits as long as possible (with youth impatience) and eventually lies about his age to join the Marines. He is very smart and athletic, so he does well with all the training despite his young age. Or maybe because of it. ;) Anyway, he is recruited as a Code Talker because he is fluent in both the Navajo language and English. 

I always envisioned the Code Talkers working in a top secret room together on some military base. Maybe some of them did. Ned and many of his fellow Code Talkers were actually in the field with the soldiers. Not only did they fight in battles, they had to carry their radios with them which were often heavy and awkward (but were also known to save radio carrier's lives if bullets went into the radio vs the man). They were in the heat of the action. Many of them died in the field. Ned and his various divisions (the men were reassigned often) were fighting the Japanese, who did not follow the Rules of War of other countries. Ned would send messages in the middle of heavy fighting, sharing locations of the Japanese.

The book gets into some specifics about what it was like for the Marines as they were trying to take control of Guam, Iwo Jimo, Okinawa, etc. It did not spare the horror of it all. I wasn't sure how my son was taking it all in and I didn't ask him while he was reading it. After he finished the book he stated that is was the best book he had read this year and that he found out he really likes reading historical fiction books. Wow! Who knew. This made me very happy to hear since it's my favorite genre as well and he really doesn't even like reading. (I hope this changes of course!)

Wendy's Rating: ****