Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac was a tough read for me. I have been looking for a book by Native Americans regarding the Native American community. This particular work focuses on the Navajo code talkers in WWII in the Pacific Theater. The code talkers and the important role they played in WWII is a topic that not many know about but who should. Which is why I read it to preview for my students. But now I’m having second thoughts.
It’s not because of the content it’s because of how the story is told. The narrator is one of the code talkers who is telling his story to his grandchildren. At first it wasn’t a problem. It made the story more personal and less stilted and factual. And the first quarter of the book dug into issues many Navajos faced going to mission schools and having their culture stripped from them.
Once the war started and the Navajos are recruited to create a code to use in the Pacific theater is when I stopped relating to the narrator. He starts interrupting his story to add commentary to t
he “grandchildren” who are his audience for his story. The problem is he does it very didactically. When he uses the word leathernecks he stops the narrative to say, “And grandchildren, you should know that leathernecks is another word to refer to Marines.” He does this several times through the remainder of the novel and it really gets frustrating. I just want him to tell his story. It’s an important story to tell. A few times I was yelling in my head, “just tell the story! I can figure out the words on my own!” It’s not like any of the terms are anything readers can’t figure out from context or just moving on. The novel is promoted as a young adult novel, so there shouldn’t be a need for the narrator to do all the explaining.
Ultimately, I would never make an entire class or book club read this book. It’s much better for an independent read and quite possibly for older students (or adults) that don’t have a good vocabulary. However, it is a good introduction to the code talkers and the sacrifices the Navajo soldiers gave for a country that hadn’t recognized them as equals. It was hard to read that after the war was over, not only were the code talkers not able to talk about it, but they never received promotions or medals of service. It wasn’t until the 60′s that these courageous individuals were recognized.
So it wasn’t a waste of read, but I think because I had set the bar so high I was looking for something more. But what I walk away with was like eating a good salad. It’s not what you really want, but it’s still good for you.
