Code Talker Book Review by Joseph Bruchac

     




Written by Joesph Bruchac 

Published by Speak in 2006

ISBN: 978-0142405963

Plot Summary: Ned Begay is an American Indian child who is taken from his family and is taught how to embrace Anglo American culture and the customs rather than his traditional culture. Ned is able to learn English and excels at school where he is able to enlist in the U.S. Army so that he can become a Navajo Code talker who is able to transmit information across unsecure channels so that the Axis powers can't understand what is being said because it is in a different language. Ned's military service includes time in the Pacific where he is able to be on the front lines of the Atomic bomb being dropped and after he gets home, he uses the GI bill to further his education and he gets recognition for his service by the U.S. government after his service is considered declassified in 1969. 

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Ned Begay (original name Kii Yazhi) is a smart and curious kid who doesn't listen to his new school's rule of not speaking in his native language which helps him later in life as he becomes one of the Navajo Code Talkers. Ned is a compassionate man not only to people that he knows but also to people that he meets in his journeys to the Pacific Islands. He relates his experience of having his cultural heritage repressed by the Americans to the experience of other people who were oppressed at the time including the Japanese who were sent to internment camps at the same time. Ned is able to make friends with a guy named George boy who is a tall white southern kid who also joined the war at the same time. Ned shows compassion to George after finding out that he can't read by spending the time with him that he needs to learn how to read so that he doesn't get kicked out of the army. 

Some of the major themes of this book were exile from native lands, alienation of people that Ned meets, as well as the strong theme of Navajo culture at the time and how it was helpful and useful for the war effort. Many of the people that Ned met were victims of oppression especially in the Pacific islands where he were traveling with the American army. There is a very pronounced irony in this book as Ned was told to keep his Native American heritage secret and wasn't allowed to practice his language or culture but then was called upon by the U.S. Army to use that very language to help protect and defend his country. Ned shows incredible amounts of empathy to everyone he meets which is shown through his actions with the people on the islands as well as the people in Ned's troop. Navajo beliefs are seen as less than throughout the story but the biggest egregious thing that was done to all Navajo was the cutting of their hair as that is a tribal custom that is sacred for the Navajo people. 

Review: Kirkus Review 

Sixteen-year-old Ned Begay detested life in the Navajo mission school where he was sent. There, “anything that belonged to the Navajo way was bad, and our Navajo language was the worst.” However, in one of the greatest ironies in American history, when WWII broke out, Navajos—victims of the US Army effort to destroy them in the 1860s and the harshness of the mission schools in the 20th century—were recruited by the Marine Corps to use their native language to create an unbreakable code. Navajo is one of the hardest of all American Indian languages to learn, and only Navajos can speak it with complete fluency. So, Ned Begay joined a select group of Navajo code talkers to create one code the Japanese couldn’t break. Telling his story to his grandchildren, Ned relates his experiences in school, military training, and across the Pacific, on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. With its multicultural themes and well-told WWII history, this will appeal to a wide audience. (author’s note, bibliography) (Fiction. 10+)

Connection: Students can learn more about the Navajo Code Talkers by watching the movie Windtalkers (rated R so would need to have parents permission.)  They could also read more about them at this website: 

 https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/navajo-code-talkers-and-the-unbreakable-code/

More books by Matt de la Pena

Children of the Longhouse ISBN: 978-0140385045

Peacemaker ISBN: 978-1984815392







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