Code Talker is a very well researched novel about the Navajos recruited by the Marines during World War II to use their native language as a code that the Japanese couldn't break. The main character, Ned Begay, is telling his story to his grandchildren and begins with being sent off to a mission school where he and other Navajos were harshly punished for speaking Navajo. Their hair was shorn, their names were changed, their clothes replaced, and they were told that their language was useless. It was a great irony that this "useless" language saved countless lives in the Pacific theater. Bruchac writes about the injustices rained upon the native Americans without being hypercritical of the white people in charge. He is also able to write about the horrors of the war including battles at Bougainville, Rabaul, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and more without becoming too graphic. Everyone in the book was a real historical figure except the main character (Ned Begay) and his two white buddies, Georgia Boy and Smitty. Excellent book!

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