Code Talker

A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two

De: Joseph Bruchac

Narrado por: Derrick Henry

Code Talker, with starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus Reviews, is a Booklist Top-10 Historical Fiction for Youth.

Although the mission school bans all that is Navajo, Ned secretly clings to his native language and culture. Proudly joining the U.S. Marines in 1943, he becomes a top-secret Navajo Code Talker. During bloody battles for Japanese islands, Ned and his brave band of code-talking brothers save thousands of lives using Navajo encryption the enemy never cracks.

©2005 Joseph Bruchac (P)2006 Recorded Books

historical novel of WWII Code Talkers

This is an excellent book geared to young adult and teens. The main character is Navajo and was sent to Indian schools as a child, where the children were forced to speak English, cut their hair, and ignore their culture. When the USA entered World War Two suddenly Navajo speakers were in demand as Code Talkers. The character isn’t old enough to sign up right away, but he eventually enlists and becomes a Marine and Code Talker. These men weren’t sitting in offices relaying messages – they were fighting in the battles of the Pacific Theater.

This book doesn’t go into a lot of gory details of war, and indeed doesn’t even go into explicit details of the school experience. This makes it an appropriate book for older kids, teens, and the squeamish. There is a memoir by Chester Nez that hits a lot harder. I give this book four stars for story, readability, and character development. I would add an extra quarter star for the enormous amount of research that went into it. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Derrick Henry. It seems to be his only audiobook.

Chapter number problems

Chapter number shown is not the chapter if audible says chapter 20 it is actually chapter 19 but the chapter numbers that the narrator was saying was correct

How he tells the story it’s beautiful

I loved this book so much it truly moved me. I would love to read more of the author’s books

good book very interesting nice short read

I really like this book although I did not realize that it was a fictional book that had a lot of facts. I know a lot of people said it was a children's book but growing up around natives it seem like the way natives told stories very interesting.

Excellent version

Would you consider the audio edition of Code Talker to be better than the print version?

I think it's easier to get the emotional feel of the story when hearing someone tell about the war and not just reading it on the page.

What does Derrick Henry bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It was an excellent experience for my students to hear an authentic voice reading this story and actually hearing the Navajo language spoken.