A Junior Library Guild Selection April 2018

2018 Cybils Award Finalist, Elementary Non-Fiction

BRLA 2018 Southwest Book Award

2019 Southwest Books of the Year: Kid Pick

2020 Grand Canyon Award, Nonfiction Nominee

2020-2021 Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award Master List



STARRED REVIEW! "A perfect, well-rounded historical story that will engage readers of all ages. A perfect, well-rounded historical story that will engage readers of all ages."--Kirkus Reviews starred review



Chester Nez was a boy told to give up his Navajo roots. He became a man who used his native language to help America win World War II.

As a young Navajo boy, Chester Nez had to leave the reservation and attend boarding school, where he was taught that his native language and culture were useless. But Chester refused to give up his heritage. Years later, during World War II, Chester--and other Navajo men like him--was recruited by the US Marines to use the Navajo language to create an unbreakable military code. Suddenly the language he had been told to forget was needed to fight a war.