To comfort a grandson frightened about an upcoming move, an elderly Navajo man tells him about the time that he, too, had to leave their canyon home and, along with hundreds of other Navajo men, came to perform a crucial mission for the U.S. government. The Navajo language, which had never been written down and was virtually unknown to outsiders, became a "secret weapon" in preventing the Japanese from intercepting and decoding American radio messages during World War II. Hunter's lengthy but absorbing story, based on interviews with former Navajo "code talkers," casts a well-deserved spotlight on these skilled soldiers and on a wartime role that is almost guaranteed to interest readers of all ages.