Reviews

= These are the review that people from our group made for the book Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac. Each review has a short summary and then our opinions of the book. = = =

Nick's Review
Kii Yazhi is a Navajo boy who gets sent to a boarding school, where his name is changed to Ned Begay. He is not allowed to speak Navajo at school but he sitll does well in his classes. He moves on to high school. While in high school he hears about Pearl Harbor. He feels the need to join the armed forces along with many other Navajos. He attends a seminar at the Navajo town center from a recruiting officer about how the Marines need Navajos for "special duties" over seas. His parents tell him that if he can wait another year he can join the Marines. That year passes and Ned breezes through Boot camp. He and his commrades are involved many famous battles and played a huge part in WWII.

Overall, this book was pretty good. The couple things I did not liek about it was how it was very realistic. I thought this because everytime someone got hurt, they would be back in a little while, nothing bad ever happens. Also I did not think it went deep enough into WWII because I think WWII as a whole was very important to this story and it mostly talked only about the war in the Pacific, but it did not talk about the war in Europe as much. I liked it because I like history and this book has a lot of history in it. Also, I like it because I am fascinated by war, especially World War Two. I also liked it because I liked that some of the characters had a funny sense of humor. I would give this book a solid four out of five stars.

In the book Code Talker, Kii Yazhi, or as he is later known, Ned Begay, is about to go to boarding school and he is the first person from his family to go to school. Because they are Navajos, the other Navajos and him are treated poorly at the school and they are not allowed to speak their own language. After he finishes that school and is selected to go to high school, the attack on pearl harbor by the Japanese happens. The Marines come to recruit Navajos and Ned wants to join but his parents say he has to wait a year. After a while another recruiter, he is a navajo, comes and Ned signs up. He goes to boot camp with the other Navajos and they all do very well. Then they go to a special school to learn the code they will use durung the war and then they go to Hawaii and Guadalcanal for more drills. They first place Ned Attacks is Bougainville and then they head off to the Marianas Islands which include Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, and Tinian.Ned fights at Saipan and then Guam before resting at the Island of Pavavu and attacking Iwo Jima. They Win All of those battles then Win at Okinawa and that is when the atomic bombs are dropped and the war ends. Ned Goes home but is still treated poorly.

I thought this book was O.K. but I will only give it a three out of five because I didn't like the writing. I didn't think that there was enough depth to the story and the characters because the author did not show very much emotion. I also did not learn as much as I wanted to about world war II. The author had a great story to work with but I think he dumbed it down too much because he thought younger kids would be reading it. I think he should have put more in about the treatment of Navajos and made that the center of the story instead of the fighting. You also did not get to hear much of what the code talkers would tell each other, which I did not like. I HATE YOU! **Jack's Review** The book Code Talker is about a navajo indian, named Ned, who was sent to a boarding school to learn english. Later on he decides to join the amazing marines and is soon sent to boot camp. Being a navajo indian everything thing in boot camp comes extremely easy for him. Everything that is except swimming. Although he learns to swim and passes. Normally this would mean that he would go home and spend some time with his family, but not for Ned and the other navajos who graduated. No they were sent to a secret training area were they learned a code bassed on the navajo language. Then they were code talkers and ready for battle. For the rest of the war Ned goes and fights for the U.S. and contributes in most of the major battles.

I thought that this book wasn't exactly the best one I've read. I would give it two out of five stars because it just kept repeating the plot over and over. All Ned would do is just hop from one island to the next. Then a character would get shot and heal. Then more island hopping. I also didn't like the dialogue used throughout the book. IT was just overall kind of crappy and it was heard to read for more than 10 minutes w/o getting bored.