Sixteen-year-old Ned Begay is used to being called stupid and other names by adults. So  joining the Marines and going through boot camp is not especially challenging for him. But war does take its toll on him. Killing the enemy and watching friends die hours after he dined with them is not exactly easy.

Luckily, Ned's Navajo heritage and language does himself and the war effort some good because it enables him to learn a secret code; he uses it to carry messages in his short-term memory. Very few written remnants of the communications are allowed. On pain of death and torture, Ned Begay is not to reveal the code.

The Marines gives him something to live for.

Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac, 2005

I was fascinated to learn that Native Americans used their Native language in order to transmit wartime messages during World War II.

• Joseph Bruchac's web site
• Navajo Code Talkers
• Books about Native Americans