WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:03.180 -Good morning, everyone and welcome to the webinar. 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:07.420 My name is Kate Fitzgerald and I am the distance learning specialist here 00:00:07.420 --> 00:00:10.520 at the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans. 00:00:10.990 --> 00:00:15.660 Before we get started I want to do a quick review of technology. 00:00:15.930 --> 00:00:18.360 I'm going to share my screen with you 00:00:18.430 --> 00:00:22.130 and you should be seeing a 'Don't go away the webinar will begin shortly.' 00:00:22.700 --> 00:00:29.010 Now, you should see something that says "Participation Technology Review." 00:00:29.470 --> 00:00:32.080 If you look at the bottom of your screen 00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:36.820 you should see a little box that has a Q in it and that says Q&A. 00:00:37.180 --> 00:00:39.850 If you have any questions about technology 00:00:39.950 --> 00:00:43.190 or any questions for myself, or Kirby 00:00:43.260 --> 00:00:47.530 if you'll go ahead and type those questions into the Q&A box 00:00:47.690 --> 00:00:53.100 we will get to those at the end of this presentation in our Q&A section. 00:00:54.230 --> 00:01:00.140 Now, you should be seeing a screen with a cover of the book 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:04.980 and if you go to art museum website store, the link below 00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:09.010 the link was also in your teacher guide that was sent out. 00:01:09.110 --> 00:01:10.950 We will resend that teacher guide 00:01:11.020 --> 00:01:15.020 to everyone after the program is over in case you need it again 00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:19.260 but you will receive a 20% discount from the museum store 00:01:19.830 --> 00:01:24.360 if you order codeword courage using the code word webinar. 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:29.600 All right. If you haven't already purchased the book 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:32.400 this would be a great time to do it. 00:01:32.470 --> 00:01:39.180 Without further ado, today's presentation is on Code Word Courage 00:01:39.380 --> 00:01:43.650 and we are joined by Kirby Larson. 00:01:44.080 --> 00:01:50.590 She is a Newbery award winner and she's here to talk about her research 00:01:50.690 --> 00:01:54.030 and why she chose to write Code Word Courage. 00:01:54.160 --> 00:01:59.500 She's going to start and then I'm going to do 00:01:59.630 --> 00:02:02.400 a little bit about the themes in the book 00:02:02.500 --> 00:02:06.470 after Kirby gives her portion and then we'll end our session 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:09.170 with a Q&A where we can take questions. 00:02:09.470 --> 00:02:11.710 Without further ado. 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:15.050 -You're ready for me to take it away? All right. 00:02:15.450 --> 00:02:17.250 -Yes. While Kirby talks 00:02:17.320 --> 00:02:20.850 I'm going to mute myself and take away my video 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:24.660 but I will come right back on as soon as Kirby is done. 00:02:25.820 --> 00:02:33.400 -Okay. Do you just see-- Got it. 00:02:33.970 --> 00:02:37.640 All right. I'm excited to talk to you all about this book 00:02:37.740 --> 00:02:40.240 which is the fourth and final book in the series 00:02:40.340 --> 00:02:43.080 that we call the Dogs of World War II. 00:02:43.780 --> 00:02:46.450 I will tell you a little bit about how I came to be a writer 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:49.510 and a little bit about my writing process as well. 00:02:49.980 --> 00:02:55.250 Like many of you I had this burning question as a kid 00:02:55.450 --> 00:02:57.520 "What should I be when I grow up?" 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:00.090 For a long time I wanted to be a circus performer 00:03:00.260 --> 00:03:05.500 doing the Flying Trapeze and then after I read the Encyclopedia Brown books 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:08.170 I decided I definitely wanted to be a detective 00:03:08.300 --> 00:03:10.670 but my mom said that would be too dangerous. 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:14.810 A lot of girls in my generation were encouraged to be nurses 00:03:14.940 --> 00:03:19.440 but I get queasy at the sight of blood so that did not seem like a good solution. 00:03:19.540 --> 00:03:23.850 Finally, when I realized how much I loved reading 00:03:24.020 --> 00:03:28.350 I thought, "Hey, maybe I could be a writer of children's books." 00:03:28.750 --> 00:03:33.560 I started writing stories and sending them out 00:03:33.860 --> 00:03:37.360 and I would send them to publishers in New York City 00:03:37.430 --> 00:03:39.360 because that's where most of the publishers were. 00:03:39.730 --> 00:03:43.840 Publishers are companies that take people's stories and turn them into books. 00:03:44.200 --> 00:03:48.370 I'd send off my stories and I'd be so excited waiting for those letters 00:03:48.670 --> 00:03:50.980 to come back to tell me I was going to have a book. 00:03:51.310 --> 00:03:57.620 Well, I did get lots of letters. I stopped counting after 250. 00:03:58.020 --> 00:04:01.250 The thing is, these were called rejection letters 00:04:01.350 --> 00:04:05.060 and these letters said "Dear Kirby, we do not like your story" 00:04:05.190 --> 00:04:07.360 "and we are not going to make it into a book." 00:04:07.790 --> 00:04:11.730 I was like, "Why are these publishers not cooperating?" 00:04:11.830 --> 00:04:13.070 "This is so disappointing." 00:04:13.170 --> 00:04:15.200 "I finally figured out what I want to do with my life." 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:19.840 There was something I needed to learn 00:04:19.940 --> 00:04:23.410 that there are two very important things for a writer 00:04:23.510 --> 00:04:24.940 and I hadn't learned them yet. 00:04:25.010 --> 00:04:27.910 Actually, how I learned them is an interesting way. 00:04:28.010 --> 00:04:31.380 I learned them when about 10 years ago 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:37.420 Kirby, who never had a dog in her life decided to bring a little dog into her life. 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:43.500 A dog whose name is Winston V Larson and Winston even loves to dress up for Halloween 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:47.070 he's such a good sport but since I had never had a dog 00:04:47.430 --> 00:04:50.440 I knew I needed to take a training class with Winston. 00:04:50.540 --> 00:04:52.900 He and I go off to the training class 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:56.580 and the first command that they taught us was, sit 00:04:56.740 --> 00:04:59.410 or taught me to teach Winston. 00:05:00.210 --> 00:05:02.880 Then the second command was to stay. 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:06.250 I was sitting there working with Winston 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:12.560 on these commands and all of a sudden I realized the two most important lessons 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:18.760 for a writer too are to sit in her office chair every single day 00:05:18.900 --> 00:05:22.930 and stay there until she has polished her stories 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:25.000 until they are the very best they can be. 00:05:25.370 --> 00:05:28.840 Once I figured that out that writing was a job 00:05:29.070 --> 00:05:31.110 and I needed to take it very seriously 00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:35.580 and I needed to send out not my first drafts like I had been doing 00:05:35.710 --> 00:05:38.880 but my polished drafts sometimes my 10th draft. 00:05:39.020 --> 00:05:43.120 After I figured that out I began to get some books published. 00:05:43.190 --> 00:05:44.720 Now, it's pretty exciting. 00:05:44.820 --> 00:05:48.990 I have not always been a student of history 00:05:49.090 --> 00:05:52.400 but when I became so fascinated with history-- 00:05:52.530 --> 00:05:55.000 There's Winston and I working away in my office. 00:05:55.300 --> 00:05:58.240 When I became fascinated with history 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:00.410 I was especially intrigued by World War Two. 00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:03.980 It seemed to have a tremendous impact on our country 00:06:04.110 --> 00:06:06.240 and my husband gave me this book 00:06:06.380 --> 00:06:09.550 called Code Talker and it was a memoir of a man 00:06:09.650 --> 00:06:12.550 who actually had been a code talker in World War Two. 00:06:12.850 --> 00:06:15.590 Because I've done a lot of reading about this war 00:06:15.650 --> 00:06:17.860 I had heard of code talkers before 00:06:17.960 --> 00:06:21.630 but there was so much I learned from Chester Nez's story. 00:06:21.890 --> 00:06:24.300 For instance, I had never realized 00:06:24.430 --> 00:06:29.230 that many young Navajo children like six, seven, eight years old 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:33.370 were taken away from their families in the 1920s and 30s 00:06:33.440 --> 00:06:37.410 and beyond and they were sent away to residential boarding schools. 00:06:37.710 --> 00:06:39.640 When they got to these schools 00:06:39.750 --> 00:06:44.480 for example, the boys who in their culture were supposed to wear their hair long 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:47.090 they were forced to have their hair cut short 00:06:47.320 --> 00:06:50.590 and they were forced to dress in clothing that was unfamiliar to them. 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:55.090 In addition, when they got to these schools 00:06:55.190 --> 00:07:00.100 if they were ever overheard speaking their own language which was Navajo 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:06.340 they would get their mouths washed out with this disgusting soap called Fels-Naptha. 00:07:06.440 --> 00:07:09.210 I once said a naughty word 00:07:09.340 --> 00:07:12.440 and my mom washed my mouth out with Fels-Naptha the soap 00:07:12.610 --> 00:07:15.250 and I can tell you it's disgusting and terrible. 00:07:15.450 --> 00:07:18.450 They were punished for speaking their own language 00:07:18.650 --> 00:07:21.520 and I learned something else about their history. 00:07:21.690 --> 00:07:29.060 In the 1800s, they were forced to move from their homeland 00:07:29.330 --> 00:07:32.360 which is in the four corners territory of our country 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:35.200 even moms with babies on their backs 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:41.040 and they had to walk miles and miles and miles to a new location called Bosque Redondo. 00:07:41.410 --> 00:07:46.080 On this terrible walk, which the Navajo actually called the long walk 00:07:46.310 --> 00:07:50.220 over 300 people perished in this terrible walk. 00:07:50.550 --> 00:07:54.920 Then, on top of that when they were finally allowed back 00:07:55.020 --> 00:07:58.220 to a smaller part of their homeland now a reservation 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:02.330 they began to raise sheep to try to support themselves, sheep and goat. 00:08:02.660 --> 00:08:04.630 When you think of the Navajos 00:08:04.730 --> 00:08:08.270 you may think of the beautiful blankets and rugs that they weave 00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:11.940 and that's from the wool from their goats and sheep. 00:08:12.500 --> 00:08:17.410 Well, after a few years of having a lot of sheep 00:08:17.540 --> 00:08:21.880 the government decided that they had too many sheep 00:08:22.010 --> 00:08:25.620 and so they were forced to give up some of their sheep 00:08:25.750 --> 00:08:28.620 and thus some of the way they could support themselves 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:30.520 and make money and feed their families. 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:35.160 I'm telling all this to help you understand that the Navajo young men 00:08:35.260 --> 00:08:38.930 had been through many tough experiences. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:46.940 It was a shock to me to learn that after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 00:08:47.170 --> 00:08:49.510 along with thousands of other young men 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:56.050 thousands of Navajo young men also enlisted in the Marines and in the army. 00:08:56.280 --> 00:08:58.120 It was hard for me to understand 00:08:58.280 --> 00:09:02.920 how they could be that self-sacrificing to do that for a country 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:07.230 that really hadn't cared for them or supported them, but they did enlist. 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:11.300 There was a sergeant, not a Navajo 00:09:11.400 --> 00:09:16.230 his name is Phillip Johnston and he had grown up on the Navajo reservation 00:09:16.330 --> 00:09:18.540 and even though he lived there his whole life 00:09:18.640 --> 00:09:21.140 he could only speak a few words of Navajo 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:24.410 because it's such a difficult language to speak and to learn. 00:09:24.540 --> 00:09:30.580 He got an idea that maybe the military could create a code 00:09:30.780 --> 00:09:35.050 based on the Navajo language because very few people could speak it. 00:09:35.190 --> 00:09:38.490 He went to the military and he gave his proposal 00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:43.160 and they accepted it and 30 Navajo Marines volunteered 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:45.660 to help create that first code. 00:09:45.860 --> 00:09:49.900 The initial code contained about 200 words 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:52.140 but over the course of the war 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:56.680 it evolved and there ended up being about 400 words in the code. 00:09:57.010 --> 00:10:02.850 The code talkers that they came to be called would be out in the battlefields 00:10:03.150 --> 00:10:10.320 with these very heavy radios and they could quickly transmit and decipher codes 00:10:10.420 --> 00:10:14.630 even under just extreme battle situations. 00:10:15.090 --> 00:10:20.130 To give you one small example of how the code was used 00:10:20.400 --> 00:10:25.670 the Code Talkers would think about things that they knew from nature. 00:10:25.940 --> 00:10:29.910 For example, they could think of a whale 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:33.080 which is a gigantic creature and they compared it 00:10:33.180 --> 00:10:36.080 to a battleship which is a gigantic ship. 00:10:36.310 --> 00:10:39.380 I am not going to be able to pronounce this word correctly 00:10:39.550 --> 00:10:44.290 but they called a battleship in Navajo they called that Lo-tso 00:10:44.460 --> 00:10:46.660 which is the same word for a whale. 00:10:47.130 --> 00:10:52.160 That's one way that they used their language to develop a code. 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:55.430 If you're curious about all the words 00:10:55.530 --> 00:10:59.070 that they ended up developing in their Navajo Code Talkers dictionary. 00:10:59.400 --> 00:11:02.110 You can go to the website that's here on the screen 00:11:02.210 --> 00:11:05.440 which is actually included in the resource materials 00:11:05.580 --> 00:11:09.010 that you received prior to the webinar today. 00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:13.020 You'll see, you'll be amazed when you look at it 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:17.260 how complicated the code is and to have to memorize all that 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.560 and be able to translate it on the spur of the moment. 00:11:20.690 --> 00:11:22.990 It's really an astonishing accomplishment. 00:11:23.130 --> 00:11:29.500 If you can see me you could tell that I am not Navajo 00:11:29.870 --> 00:11:32.700 I needed to enlist the help of some people 00:11:32.800 --> 00:11:37.210 who were Navajo to help me tell the story accurately and respectfully. 00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:42.110 Now on your screen, you should see a picture of Dr. Roy O. Hawthorne 00:11:42.210 --> 00:11:45.850 who was one of the 400 Navajo Code Talkers. 00:11:46.180 --> 00:11:52.390 I reached out to Dr. Hawthorne through the Code Talkers Facebook page. 00:11:52.490 --> 00:11:54.160 I explained what I was trying to do. 00:11:54.290 --> 00:11:58.100 I asked if it felt like it was okay thing for me to take on. 00:11:58.300 --> 00:12:01.830 Dr. Hawthorne responded and he said he was really excited 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:05.970 that I was thinking of trying to tell this story for the middle-grade audience. 00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:13.016 He was terrific and telling me his own stories and things that he had experienced. 00:12:13.150 --> 00:12:17.921 His stories really helped me to create the Navajo character 00:12:18.021 --> 00:12:22.526 the marine in my book Code Word Courage who I named Denny Begay. 00:12:22.592 --> 00:12:26.229 I used Begay because it's a common Navajo last name 00:12:26.363 --> 00:12:29.533 and this is just an inside story between us. 00:12:29.700 --> 00:12:32.536 I used Denny because that is my baby brother's name 00:12:32.903 --> 00:12:34.805 and I wanted to work him into a story. 00:12:35.872 --> 00:12:39.609 Another person who was tremendously helpful was the man 00:12:39.743 --> 00:12:41.311 who's standing in this photograph 00:12:41.411 --> 00:12:43.480 his name is Michael Smith. 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:45.749 He's the son of the man who's seated there 00:12:45.849 --> 00:12:52.956 Samuel Jessie Smith Sr. and Jessie Smith Sr. was a Navajo Code Talker 00:12:53.090 --> 00:12:56.126 who actually served in the battle of Iwo Jima 00:12:56.259 --> 00:12:59.629 which is one of the battles that's referenced in Code Word Courage. 00:12:59.930 --> 00:13:04.434 Sadly the elder Mr. Smith has passed away 00:13:04.568 --> 00:13:07.671 but his son was also excited about this project 00:13:07.904 --> 00:13:11.975 and he graciously agreed to read my entire manuscript 00:13:12.142 --> 00:13:13.377 and that's a big commitment. 00:13:13.577 --> 00:13:17.748 He read through the whole thing to make sure I was being accurate 00:13:17.881 --> 00:13:19.750 and respectful of the Navajo culture. 00:13:19.916 --> 00:13:23.687 He was a tremendous help in keeping me on the right track. 00:13:23.887 --> 00:13:25.756 He was also a tremendous encourager. 00:13:25.889 --> 00:13:30.761 I'm so grateful for the help of Dr. Hawthorne and Michael Smith. 00:13:30.961 --> 00:13:34.731 After I got their encouragement and permission 00:13:34.865 --> 00:13:37.067 of course, I had to do my research. 00:13:37.267 --> 00:13:42.539 I began to read every book I could get my hand on about the Code Talkers books 00:13:42.672 --> 00:13:44.074 that they had written themselves 00:13:44.207 --> 00:13:46.743 books that were written about them by other people. 00:13:46.843 --> 00:13:49.980 These are actually two of the memoirs I read 00:13:50.113 --> 00:13:55.152 and the book in the upper corner was written by the daughter of a Code Talker. 00:13:55.318 --> 00:13:59.222 Then I wanted to hear them if I could 00:13:59.322 --> 00:14:05.228 and thankfully, they had recorded some video interviews 00:14:05.362 --> 00:14:08.065 on this website navajocodetalker.codes 00:14:08.231 --> 00:14:13.403 and as well there are some oral histories recorded at the Library of Congress. 00:14:13.603 --> 00:14:17.074 Those sites too are given to you as links 00:14:17.174 --> 00:14:19.843 in the documents that you received prior to the webinar. 00:14:20.210 --> 00:14:23.880 I would highly recommend going to one of these sites 00:14:24.014 --> 00:14:27.818 and just listening to at least one of the men talk about their experiences. 00:14:29.953 --> 00:14:32.622 When the war was over in 1945 00:14:32.756 --> 00:14:34.691 the Code Talkers we're told to go home 00:14:34.825 --> 00:14:38.628 and not tell anybody what they had done and they did not. 00:14:38.762 --> 00:14:42.065 They went home and they didn't say a word to anyone 00:14:42.265 --> 00:14:44.668 not their family members, not anyone. 00:14:44.768 --> 00:14:49.606 It wasn't until the late 1960s when someone was doing some research 00:14:49.706 --> 00:14:52.943 on another topic that they encountered some information 00:14:53.043 --> 00:14:58.048 about the Code Talkers in some then declassified documents. 00:14:58.148 --> 00:15:02.586 It took 50 years in all for the Code Talkers 00:15:02.719 --> 00:15:06.323 to be recognized for their contributions to our country. 00:15:06.456 --> 00:15:11.528 In 2001 President Bush presented gold medals 00:15:11.695 --> 00:15:15.032 to the four surviving Code Talkers. 00:15:15.132 --> 00:15:19.236 If you get a chance to look at any images from that ceremony 00:15:19.403 --> 00:15:22.806 it's really moving and I encourage you to take a look at that. 00:15:24.307 --> 00:15:28.545 I love this quote because it really sums up what I believe. 00:15:28.678 --> 00:15:30.514 "If we don't understand our past" 00:15:30.647 --> 00:15:34.317 "we're going to have a hard time figuring out our present and our future." 00:15:34.651 --> 00:15:37.254 "I really do believe it's by understanding our past" 00:15:37.354 --> 00:15:41.158 "that we are given the ability to make changes" 00:15:41.291 --> 00:15:43.393 "in the present and changes in the future." 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:48.298 I particularly love writing stories about the past for young readers 00:15:48.632 --> 00:15:51.935 because I think they are really the hope for the future. 00:15:52.235 --> 00:15:53.570 I think if they can understand 00:15:53.704 --> 00:15:58.208 they will certainly figure things out for us because I write for young readers 00:15:58.341 --> 00:16:01.344 kids your age, I'd like to have an 11-year-old character. 00:16:01.712 --> 00:16:06.149 One advice almost every writer hears and gives is to write what you know. 00:16:06.516 --> 00:16:10.487 I began to think about myself as an 11-year-old girl. 00:16:10.921 --> 00:16:13.523 I created a character named Billy Packer. 00:16:14.024 --> 00:16:16.226 I'm the one on the right in the striped sweater. 00:16:16.626 --> 00:16:18.195 I never quite fit in. 00:16:18.362 --> 00:16:21.231 I was always a little lonely I had a hard time making friends 00:16:21.298 --> 00:16:23.266 a little bit goofy and left out. 00:16:23.367 --> 00:16:28.839 I knew what those feelings could feel like and I thought that Billy Packer 00:16:28.972 --> 00:16:32.275 might be one of those kids similar to what I was like. 00:16:33.076 --> 00:16:36.380 I was thinking if she was 11 in 1942 00:16:36.613 --> 00:16:42.586 that would have made her a young girl living through the Great Depression. 00:16:42.953 --> 00:16:46.823 I started to think about all the things that happened during the Great Depression. 00:16:47.124 --> 00:16:50.460 One of the most powerful things is that so many men 00:16:50.627 --> 00:16:53.630 and women left their families behind in search of work. 00:16:54.031 --> 00:16:58.835 I was pretty sure that that was something that would have happened to Billy too. 00:16:59.102 --> 00:17:02.572 In fact, they were left on their great aunt's farm 00:17:02.806 --> 00:17:08.812 her brother Leo and Billy wondering and longing for their father to return 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:10.947 but he never came back. 00:17:11.181 --> 00:17:14.217 I could just imagine how Billy would just listen 00:17:14.351 --> 00:17:16.720 to every car going down the highway and wonder 00:17:17.054 --> 00:17:19.623 "Would my dad be in this car coming home finally?" 00:17:20.190 --> 00:17:23.894 You'll have to read to see if she ever does get reunited with him. 00:17:24.194 --> 00:17:27.431 Another thing I knew about Billy 00:17:27.531 --> 00:17:29.800 is that she would be like most other kids 00:17:29.933 --> 00:17:33.704 living in the United States and that they would be participating 00:17:33.804 --> 00:17:35.338 in the war effort somehow. 00:17:35.706 --> 00:17:37.941 They might be planting a victory garden. 00:17:38.141 --> 00:17:42.746 Even boys would knit socks and mufflers for the soldiers. 00:17:43.080 --> 00:17:44.681 They might write them letters. 00:17:44.981 --> 00:17:50.354 They would definitely help purchase groceries using their coupon books 00:17:50.487 --> 00:17:53.623 that their families were given to ration out the food. 00:17:53.890 --> 00:17:57.327 I would highly encourage you 00:17:57.427 --> 00:18:01.898 to check out the World War II museums website and get involved in there. 00:18:02.199 --> 00:18:03.533 Get in the scrap program 00:18:03.667 --> 00:18:06.903 because it will really put you in the shoes of those children 00:18:07.037 --> 00:18:08.805 who were living during the war. 00:18:09.106 --> 00:18:13.643 It will give you a great picture of the things that they did to pitch in and help out. 00:18:13.877 --> 00:18:17.381 Another thing kids like Billy would have done would be 00:18:17.447 --> 00:18:19.750 to save their nickels and dimes and quarters 00:18:19.916 --> 00:18:23.153 and bring them to school to purchase war stamps. 00:18:23.286 --> 00:18:26.256 When they had purchased a book full of war stamps 00:18:26.390 --> 00:18:30.594 they could trade that book in for $25 savings bond 00:18:31.194 --> 00:18:33.163 war bond actually they were called. 00:18:33.296 --> 00:18:34.865 The reason they were called war bonds 00:18:35.032 --> 00:18:37.134 is that our government used the money 00:18:37.267 --> 00:18:40.637 that was raised through these efforts to help pay for the war. 00:18:41.304 --> 00:18:44.908 You've probably already figured out that wars can be incredibly expensive. 00:18:45.542 --> 00:18:48.612 I do a lot of different things to try 00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:51.381 to understand what it was like to live during World War II. 00:18:51.882 --> 00:18:56.253 I was not born then I was born ways after the war. 00:18:57.254 --> 00:19:00.323 Some of the things I like to do is I like to read the books 00:19:00.457 --> 00:19:02.659 and comic books that kids would have read, then. 00:19:02.926 --> 00:19:07.030 I like to listen to radio shows that they would have listened to 00:19:07.197 --> 00:19:10.000 and that's actually easy to do on many different archives 00:19:10.167 --> 00:19:13.437 or listen to records that they would have listened to. 00:19:13.603 --> 00:19:15.572 Remember, kids didn't have TV. 00:19:15.706 --> 00:19:19.609 Their entertainment was they either made their own entertainment 00:19:19.743 --> 00:19:21.445 or they listened to records or the radio. 00:19:21.878 --> 00:19:26.216 I even like to find old cookbooks and recreate recipes 00:19:26.550 --> 00:19:28.819 that kids might have eaten during World War II. 00:19:29.152 --> 00:19:31.021 I found some delicious 00:19:31.154 --> 00:19:33.790 especially dessert recipes in cookbooks like this one. 00:19:33.924 --> 00:19:37.127 There were some icky recipes too 00:19:37.327 --> 00:19:40.330 like this braised pork liver and I have to be honest 00:19:40.464 --> 00:19:44.368 I never really tried these recipes that don't sound as appealing. 00:19:44.534 --> 00:19:48.705 Then, of course, when I had completed all my research 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:51.441 and I felt I had a good understanding of my characters-- 00:19:51.575 --> 00:19:54.411 There's something else that's really important in these books 00:19:54.478 --> 00:19:56.213 that I've written about World War II. 00:19:56.313 --> 00:20:00.617 There is always a dog and in Code Word Courage the dog 00:20:00.717 --> 00:20:04.021 is actually a stray dog who's named Bear. 00:20:04.187 --> 00:20:06.923 I modeled him after a Belgian sheepdog 00:20:07.057 --> 00:20:10.394 because the sheep were so important to the Navajo people. 00:20:10.560 --> 00:20:12.963 I didn't end up using that plotline in the book 00:20:13.096 --> 00:20:17.634 but Bear stayed a big smart Shepherd. 00:20:18.001 --> 00:20:23.507 In this story, Denny is the one who finds him when he's lost 00:20:23.740 --> 00:20:26.076 and because he has to go off to fight in the war 00:20:26.209 --> 00:20:27.711 he leaves him with Billy. 00:20:27.878 --> 00:20:30.580 Through this story, Code Word Courage 00:20:30.747 --> 00:20:35.619 you will discover that Bear ends up saving both of his human friends. 00:20:35.952 --> 00:20:38.321 I hope you'll take time to read it to find out how. 00:20:38.588 --> 00:20:42.526 It has really been fun for me to share a bit of the story 00:20:42.659 --> 00:20:46.963 and the work I was involved in to get this story in front of you. 00:20:47.164 --> 00:20:50.434 Now I'm going to turn this story back over to Kate. 00:20:50.834 --> 00:20:52.569 -All right. 00:20:52.736 --> 00:20:57.607 Thank you, Kirby, so much and I am going to elaborate. 00:20:59.476 --> 00:21:00.944 Can you hear me? 00:21:01.645 --> 00:21:03.046 -[?] 00:21:06.016 --> 00:21:09.052 -Yes, I'm going to elaborate on what Kirby talked 00:21:09.152 --> 00:21:15.359 about using three different parts from the story. 00:21:15.625 --> 00:21:17.160 I'm going to go ahead and mute Kirby 00:21:17.561 --> 00:21:22.733 and then we'll bring Kirby back on after we read three parts from the 00:21:22.899 --> 00:21:26.436 we won't give it away but three parts from the book. 00:21:26.636 --> 00:21:29.106 Then, we'll do some Q&A. 00:21:37.614 --> 00:21:39.616 -I think you muted yourself and not me. 00:21:40.951 --> 00:21:45.789 -All right. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen with you guys. 00:21:46.156 --> 00:21:53.230 We are going to start on chapter 2, page 13. 00:21:53.630 --> 00:21:56.400 Our first theme that we have to talk about 00:21:56.533 --> 00:21:58.869 before we talk about the code talkers themselves 00:21:59.002 --> 00:22:03.507 are the American Indian or native American residential schools. 00:22:03.907 --> 00:22:10.013 On page 13, it starts with, "His buddy had no idea what it was like to grow up" 00:22:10.113 --> 00:22:13.116 "on the reservation being hauled off to boarding school" 00:22:13.417 --> 00:22:18.288 "as an eight-year-old where the main lesson was being Diné was unacceptable." 00:22:18.622 --> 00:22:22.059 "10 years later Denny could still taste the soap," 00:22:22.225 --> 00:22:23.860 The soap that Kirby talked about. 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:27.497 "The principal would shove in his mouth every time you spoke Navajo 00:22:27.831 --> 00:22:29.199 his own language. 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:37.040 In World War II, as we now know they used Navajo language to make a code 00:22:37.407 --> 00:22:42.112 but this same code was a code that the American government 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:46.283 starting in about the 1870 tried to get rid of. 00:22:46.683 --> 00:22:50.420 Native American, including Navajo children 00:22:50.687 --> 00:22:55.659 but many other tribes as well children were removed 00:22:55.726 --> 00:22:58.261 from their homes and from their families 00:22:58.395 --> 00:23:00.630 and brought to these boarding schools. 00:23:00.797 --> 00:23:03.433 Here we have a picture of one of these boarding schools. 00:23:03.633 --> 00:23:07.571 They were meant to assimilate American Indian children 00:23:07.704 --> 00:23:10.073 into the greater American culture. 00:23:10.507 --> 00:23:12.509 It would take away their way of life 00:23:12.609 --> 00:23:17.814 their traditions, their way of dressing but especially their language. 00:23:18.115 --> 00:23:24.488 They were usually given different names a more American sounding name. 00:23:24.788 --> 00:23:28.225 We're going to look at some pictures of what happened to what they looked like. 00:23:28.492 --> 00:23:29.826 "Even more than that" 00:23:29.926 --> 00:23:33.230 "they were not allowed to speak their language anymore." 00:23:33.697 --> 00:23:37.401 "These languages like Navajo start to die out" 00:23:37.667 --> 00:23:39.703 "because people aren't speaking them anymore." 00:23:40.237 --> 00:23:42.172 Here we have a couple of pictures. 00:23:42.305 --> 00:23:45.542 Most of these school locations were in the West 00:23:45.709 --> 00:23:49.579 in the northwest near reservations themselves. 00:23:49.846 --> 00:23:54.384 There are some schools still left that you can go visit as museums. 00:23:54.718 --> 00:24:00.223 Then at the bottom you see a native American schoolboy 00:24:00.323 --> 00:24:03.894 from what he looked like when he came from the reservation 00:24:04.094 --> 00:24:06.496 into what he looked like just a couple months 00:24:06.630 --> 00:24:11.635 after being at the reservation themselves. 00:24:11.868 --> 00:24:15.739 Here's another example. These are not Navajo children. 00:24:15.806 --> 00:24:17.107 These are Apache children. 00:24:17.441 --> 00:24:23.513 They went to the Carlisle boarding school as you can see they have long hair. 00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:28.151 They're wearing pretty much their traditional dress at the time 00:24:28.251 --> 00:24:31.121 then only about a couple months 00:24:31.254 --> 00:24:34.691 after they had been at this Carlisle boarding school-- 00:24:35.459 --> 00:24:38.128 This is the same exact group of children 00:24:38.495 --> 00:24:42.632 and you can see they are wearing totally different clothes. 00:24:42.766 --> 00:24:44.701 They have all of their haircut 00:24:45.102 --> 00:24:47.738 and it basically looks like they are been assimilated 00:24:47.871 --> 00:24:50.741 into the broader culture around them. 00:24:51.074 --> 00:24:55.345 Their Navajo language or their Apache culture 00:24:55.479 --> 00:24:59.583 or whatever tribe they came from it starts to die out. 00:24:59.916 --> 00:25:05.555 It doesn't really come back into use until World War II. 00:25:05.989 --> 00:25:09.292 This is going to cause some controversy that we'll talk about here in a little bit. 00:25:09.559 --> 00:25:13.897 We're going to move on to our next theme which is the code talkers themselves. 00:25:14.197 --> 00:25:18.068 If you'll head to chapter 10, page 78. 00:25:18.301 --> 00:25:21.104 We're going to read about the code talkers themselves. 00:25:21.438 --> 00:25:24.474 Sergeant Johnson picked up a pointer 00:25:24.608 --> 00:25:26.910 and tapped at the list of words on the blackboard. 00:25:27.144 --> 00:25:28.645 Begay, what's this? 00:25:28.779 --> 00:25:32.482 The pointer landed on Ga-gih, "Crow," 00:25:32.849 --> 00:25:35.719 Denny answered. "That's what it meant yesterday." 00:25:36.086 --> 00:25:38.155 "Today it means patrol plane." 00:25:38.555 --> 00:25:43.927 The pointer kept tapping, Tas-chizzie swallow, was a torpedo plane. 00:25:44.294 --> 00:25:47.931 Atsá, eagle, a transport plane. 00:25:48.365 --> 00:25:53.603 As the sergeant went down the list Denny's heart beat faster, it was a code. 00:25:54.037 --> 00:25:56.606 The Navajo language was the basis of a code. 00:25:56.873 --> 00:25:59.876 That's why he was here. He glanced around the room. 00:26:00.143 --> 00:26:01.978 That's why they were all here. 00:26:02.279 --> 00:26:07.451 Just like Kirby said in her presentation, Phil Johnson 00:26:07.718 --> 00:26:12.656 who his parents were missionaries and he grew up on a Navajo reservation 00:26:12.823 --> 00:26:14.991 had the idea to do this. 00:26:15.359 --> 00:26:17.694 He served actually World War I 00:26:18.028 --> 00:26:21.531 and he witnessed other Native American languages 00:26:21.698 --> 00:26:25.802 specifically the Choctaw being used in Europe. 00:26:26.069 --> 00:26:31.441 We get asked a lot why then wasn't Choctaw used in World War II. 00:26:31.908 --> 00:26:37.881 Between World War I, world war II German anthropologist actually went 00:26:37.981 --> 00:26:42.119 and studied most of the American Indian tribes 00:26:42.419 --> 00:26:45.655 in the United States and learned their language. 00:26:46.056 --> 00:26:49.993 They never learned Navajo because it wasn't written down. 00:26:50.394 --> 00:26:52.129 Most of the other ones were written down. 00:26:52.662 --> 00:26:55.465 Sergeant Phil Johnston knew this. 00:26:55.866 --> 00:27:02.906 Just like Kirby said, he brought his idea to the marines and he had them do a test. 00:27:03.173 --> 00:27:09.212 30 Navajos ended up being the original Navajo code talkers. 00:27:09.746 --> 00:27:12.315 Here is a couple of pictures. 00:27:12.682 --> 00:27:18.955 In February of 1942, just three months after Pearl Harbor attacked the US 00:27:19.322 --> 00:27:22.225 and America is plunged into a World War II 00:27:22.526 --> 00:27:25.128 they did their first demonstration. 00:27:25.629 --> 00:27:31.468 Get this, the Navajos encoded, transmitted 00:27:31.802 --> 00:27:37.741 and decoded a three-line English message in 20 seconds. 00:27:38.308 --> 00:27:44.014 Whereas the machines from the time took 30 minutes to do that same job. 00:27:44.381 --> 00:27:49.386 All it took was this one test in front of these Marine Corps generals 00:27:49.653 --> 00:27:55.192 for the Marines to sign onto this program and make it a top-secret mission. 00:27:55.659 --> 00:28:01.665 The first code talkers immediately went to creating a military alphabet. 00:28:02.099 --> 00:28:07.003 Like we said it wasn't written down as Navajos did. 00:28:07.104 --> 00:28:11.641 They had to basically write it down and create it on their own. 00:28:11.908 --> 00:28:17.280 Kirby showed us some great examples of words that they used for substituting. 00:28:17.614 --> 00:28:20.817 Not only are they the code talkers 00:28:21.118 --> 00:28:25.122 but they created the code themselves which is really cool. 00:28:25.489 --> 00:28:31.962 Here at the museum, we actually have an oral history from Thomas Begay 00:28:32.496 --> 00:28:35.899 one of the code talkers who fought in world war II. 00:28:36.333 --> 00:28:40.871 We're going to listen to what he says about being a code talker. 00:28:56.286 --> 00:29:02.192 -I did not enlist in the Marine Corps for code talker. 00:29:02.959 --> 00:29:06.863 I sign up to be Ariel Gunner, later hours told 00:29:06.930 --> 00:29:11.101 that I was going to learn a Navajo code to provide 00:29:11.301 --> 00:29:13.970 and maintain communication for all the marines. 00:29:14.337 --> 00:29:17.674 We transmit over the radio in Navajo. 00:29:18.075 --> 00:29:21.311 We did everything by memory like the medicine man 00:29:21.411 --> 00:29:23.580 or prayers, Navajo songs. 00:29:23.847 --> 00:29:27.484 It wasn't too hard for me to memorize all this stuff. 00:29:27.784 --> 00:29:32.823 I was on command ship and went through Guam Saipan. 00:29:34.057 --> 00:29:36.626 Then they told us that we were on Iwa Jima 00:29:36.727 --> 00:29:40.597 and they should be an easy island because army air force has been bombing. 00:29:40.731 --> 00:29:42.866 Navy's been shielding. 00:29:43.166 --> 00:29:46.236 They should be no Japanese left on the island. 00:29:46.870 --> 00:29:49.272 One morning about two in the morning 00:29:49.573 --> 00:29:54.845 we were all awakened by a loudspeaker. "Wake up and get ready" 00:29:55.145 --> 00:29:57.848 "get your last breakfast, steak, and eggs." 00:29:58.215 --> 00:30:00.917 I guess we were in for a surprise. 00:30:01.585 --> 00:30:06.356 We had the radio going already and then about 0900 00:30:06.456 --> 00:30:08.325 the first group of Marines hit the beach. 00:30:08.658 --> 00:30:13.030 Well, I tell you, I was numb when I hit the sand. 00:30:13.430 --> 00:30:19.936 I had no feeling at all, but I had to stay low because the Japanese knew who to hit 00:30:20.437 --> 00:30:22.572 especially radiomen or officers. 00:30:23.106 --> 00:30:25.375 They tried to knock out the radio at the first shot. 00:30:25.776 --> 00:30:28.345 Those Japanese, they're pretty good shooters 00:30:28.445 --> 00:30:30.747 they don't mess around, they're there to kill. 00:30:31.048 --> 00:30:35.652 Like I said, I signed up for Airel Gunner and I end up in the wrong place. 00:30:38.855 --> 00:30:41.992 -A little background on Thomas 00:30:42.325 --> 00:30:47.764 because here we have him in a picture obviously, a little bit after World War II. 00:30:49.299 --> 00:30:52.536 He was born in New Mexico 00:30:52.769 --> 00:30:57.641 and he grew up only speaking Navajo and then at age 13 00:30:58.008 --> 00:31:01.478 he attended one of those boarding schools we talked about 00:31:01.778 --> 00:31:04.381 and learned English for the first time. 00:31:04.915 --> 00:31:09.519 At 16, right after Pearl Harbor he ends up enlisting 00:31:09.686 --> 00:31:14.424 in the Marine Corps and goes on to fight in World War II. 00:31:14.758 --> 00:31:17.527 He's going to be one of those Marines 00:31:17.728 --> 00:31:21.765 that was recognized from President Bush just a couple of years ago. 00:31:22.499 --> 00:31:27.037 We'll talk more about the code talkers when we get to questions and answers 00:31:27.337 --> 00:31:30.574 but I also want to talk a little bit about the home front. 00:31:30.974 --> 00:31:34.144 If you read the book or if you plan on reading it 00:31:34.277 --> 00:31:37.347 the home front is a big part of the story. 00:31:37.681 --> 00:31:41.885 We're going to start on page 159 with chapter 20. 00:31:42.419 --> 00:31:47.391 Billy pasted under the gold star on the frilly red heart 00:31:47.524 --> 00:31:48.558 she just cut out. 00:31:48.892 --> 00:31:52.229 "Would a homie Valentine really cheer up an injured soldier?" 00:31:52.496 --> 00:31:56.033 "I wish we could go with Miss Daly and help hand out the cards," 00:31:56.333 --> 00:31:58.435 Kate said." Hazel agreed." 00:31:58.835 --> 00:32:01.004 "Mom's Red Cross ladies go every week" 00:32:01.171 --> 00:32:04.041 "to Camp Pendleton to deliver mail at the hospital." 00:32:04.341 --> 00:32:06.877 She says, "The soldiers are so glad to get it." 00:32:08.045 --> 00:32:09.413 "Too bad, we aren't 14," 00:32:09.713 --> 00:32:11.848 Clarice chimed in, then we could go too. 00:32:12.282 --> 00:32:17.187 Billy was relieved about the hospital's rules against visitors under 14. 00:32:17.688 --> 00:32:21.792 It wasn't that she was squeamish about seeing the injuries, much? 00:32:22.325 --> 00:32:25.529 She knew if she stepped one foot into that place 00:32:25.762 --> 00:32:30.867 she would be reminded that Leo or Denny could easily be 00:32:30.934 --> 00:32:33.036 one of those recovering from war wounds. 00:32:33.437 --> 00:32:40.510 This chapter and even this segment talks about a couple of different home front themes. 00:32:40.844 --> 00:32:45.182 The first one is just that almost every American 00:32:45.248 --> 00:32:49.653 in World War II was touched by World War II. 00:32:50.053 --> 00:32:54.124 Even though Billy is just a young girl she's not in the military 00:32:54.491 --> 00:32:57.461 she's just at school she knew that her brother 00:32:57.661 --> 00:32:59.763 and her brother's friend were fighting in it. 00:33:00.163 --> 00:33:04.701 Almost everyone at this time either had a family member 00:33:04.801 --> 00:33:09.439 or someone that they knew or loved who was fighting in the military. 00:33:09.973 --> 00:33:13.677 Which brings us to something that Kirby also talked about 00:33:13.910 --> 00:33:17.013 and I actually have one here with me. 00:33:17.347 --> 00:33:22.686 Every American was issued a ration book with stamps in them every month 00:33:22.786 --> 00:33:24.654 even students like you got one. 00:33:25.022 --> 00:33:28.091 As different food became scarce 00:33:28.291 --> 00:33:30.227 they were added to those rationing lists 00:33:30.594 --> 00:33:35.232 and so the books would change and you had to learn about them at school. 00:33:35.399 --> 00:33:42.105 Many classrooms had posters and ration books that the teacher used to teach 00:33:42.439 --> 00:33:45.409 how to ration food, you had to use math 00:33:45.742 --> 00:33:48.612 along with a little bit of just intuition 00:33:48.712 --> 00:33:54.818 on how to go to the grocery store and use not just money, but rations. 00:33:55.052 --> 00:33:57.654 Like I said, if you ever come to the museum 00:33:57.954 --> 00:34:04.094 we have a bunch of these here or if you do get in a scrap like Kirby talked about 00:34:04.361 --> 00:34:06.496 we also have ration books in there. 00:34:06.730 --> 00:34:09.666 I'm going to take it to the present day right now. 00:34:09.866 --> 00:34:14.871 Back in World War II on the home front and right now 00:34:15.105 --> 00:34:19.042 just as you saw Billy and other students wrote letters 00:34:19.176 --> 00:34:21.712 to people who were fighting overseas 00:34:22.012 --> 00:34:26.550 and you as a student can actually still do that in 2018. 00:34:26.883 --> 00:34:28.552 An operation gratitude 00:34:28.685 --> 00:34:30.554 which you see on your screen here 00:34:30.687 --> 00:34:34.891 has delivered over 2.1 million care packages 00:34:34.991 --> 00:34:40.430 with things like letters, candy, blankets 00:34:40.664 --> 00:34:46.803 all kinds of things to Americans serving overseas and actually, here at home too. 00:34:47.170 --> 00:34:52.342 If you look at the bottom one of their biggest volunteers is actually 00:34:52.376 --> 00:34:58.281 Steve, who is a 100-year-old World War II veteran and he talks about 00:34:58.515 --> 00:35:01.184 he got letters when he was in World War II 00:35:01.284 --> 00:35:07.858 and so he wanted to do that same thing to people who are fighting in 2018. 00:35:08.325 --> 00:35:11.762 We'll send out some information just in case your class 00:35:11.828 --> 00:35:17.734 is ever interested in getting on board with operation gratitude. 00:35:18.268 --> 00:35:22.205 Those are our three big themes that we're going to talk about today 00:35:22.506 --> 00:35:24.041 with the passages. 00:35:24.207 --> 00:35:28.278 There are so many more World War II themes within this book 00:35:28.545 --> 00:35:30.280 but I don't want to give it all away 00:35:30.414 --> 00:35:32.649 because you're going to have to read it if you have it. 00:35:32.883 --> 00:35:37.888 Now, we are going to move so I'm going to stop sharing my screen. 00:35:38.221 --> 00:35:45.429 Now, I'm going to unmute Kirby we are going to move to our Q&A session. 00:35:46.129 --> 00:35:51.668 If you have any question we've got a couple already 00:35:51.935 --> 00:35:55.105 but go ahead and start writing them in the Q&A 00:35:55.372 --> 00:35:56.807 and we'll go from there. 00:35:57.474 --> 00:35:59.943 I'm going to start with my first question Kirby 00:36:00.277 --> 00:36:02.846 which is from Justice in North Carolina. 00:36:03.213 --> 00:36:08.418 He wants to know why did you call it, Code Word Courage? 00:36:08.752 --> 00:36:10.354 What does courage mean to you? 00:36:10.654 --> 00:36:13.323 -That is such a great question. 00:36:13.423 --> 00:36:16.293 Well, first of all, Justice I have to tell you that originally 00:36:16.526 --> 00:36:20.964 I titled the book Bear after the dog in the book. 00:36:21.331 --> 00:36:25.268 My editor thought we needed a stronger title 00:36:25.335 --> 00:36:29.439 and so we made lists of what the title could possibly be. 00:36:29.706 --> 00:36:32.943 I felt strongly that code needed to be in the title. 00:36:33.276 --> 00:36:37.881 We played around with code codeword, those different things. 00:36:37.981 --> 00:36:42.085 I have a dog myself you saw the picture of Winston 00:36:42.152 --> 00:36:44.888 and I walk him every day and it's while I'm on my walk 00:36:45.022 --> 00:36:46.923 so that I get my best thinking done. 00:36:47.124 --> 00:36:49.960 We were walking and I was thinking about 00:36:50.060 --> 00:36:53.330 how one of the reasons I was motivated to write this story 00:36:53.497 --> 00:36:55.699 is that I was so impressed by the courage 00:36:55.832 --> 00:36:59.169 the selfless courage of the Navajo Code Talkers. 00:36:59.269 --> 00:37:02.906 It just clicks that night and I applied Code Word Courage. 00:37:03.040 --> 00:37:07.444 I rushed home and emailed my editor and she really liked it, too. 00:37:07.511 --> 00:37:12.416 I think it just-- I was trying to capture in just very succinctly 00:37:12.582 --> 00:37:15.852 what I was celebrating and trying to honor 00:37:16.086 --> 00:37:18.422 in those amazing men and what they had done. 00:37:18.755 --> 00:37:22.492 -That's awesome. I think it's a great title. 00:37:22.592 --> 00:37:27.531 If I had to answer what does courage mean today, Justice? 00:37:27.698 --> 00:37:32.035 I think that I would say that it's everyday common people 00:37:32.169 --> 00:37:38.742 stepping up to doing uncommon things that they don't necessarily think 00:37:38.809 --> 00:37:42.779 they did anything special because they were just doing their duty 00:37:42.946 --> 00:37:44.781 and what they were supposed to do. 00:37:45.015 --> 00:37:47.584 That was a really great question. 00:37:47.918 --> 00:37:50.253 I'm actually going to move on to another question 00:37:50.420 --> 00:37:52.022 I will stick with the dog theme. 00:37:52.122 --> 00:37:56.426 Why do you like to put dogs in this story 00:37:56.560 --> 00:38:00.030 and really all your other World War II stories as well? 00:38:00.163 --> 00:38:04.334 -Well, it actually was one of those happy accidents. 00:38:04.501 --> 00:38:08.438 The very first book that I wrote in this series is called Dash. 00:38:08.672 --> 00:38:10.307 It's not the first one that was published 00:38:10.407 --> 00:38:11.942 but it was the first one I wrote. 00:38:12.109 --> 00:38:14.444 It was about a Japanese-American girl 00:38:14.511 --> 00:38:17.180 who was separated from her dog when the girl 00:38:17.314 --> 00:38:20.817 was sent to one of the incarceration camps during World War II. 00:38:20.917 --> 00:38:26.857 I found that just having that dog in there gave me a way 00:38:26.990 --> 00:38:31.995 to talk about heavier issues and more emotions. 00:38:32.295 --> 00:38:36.733 It worked so well, that when my editor asked if I had another idea 00:38:36.933 --> 00:38:40.937 I said, "Yes," before I even had the idea. 00:38:41.171 --> 00:38:45.575 I went researching, where else were dogs involved in at the homefront? 00:38:45.742 --> 00:38:48.245 I learned about the dogs for defense program 00:38:48.412 --> 00:38:51.448 which was the inspiration for the book, Duke. 00:38:51.715 --> 00:38:56.019 Dogs are just so-- They love us they're so loyal and faithful. 00:38:56.319 --> 00:39:00.090 I think they have a good way of bringing us into a story. 00:39:00.223 --> 00:39:02.159 For example, like I said earlier 00:39:02.259 --> 00:39:04.161 I didn't really like history when I was a kid 00:39:04.227 --> 00:39:07.764 but I think if I'd had a book with a dog in it that was historical 00:39:07.864 --> 00:39:09.866 I would have just gobbled that book up. 00:39:09.966 --> 00:39:13.236 I think dogs are a great way to draw us into the story 00:39:13.303 --> 00:39:18.475 and then hopefully, I do a good job of telling me about the historical event 00:39:18.575 --> 00:39:20.010 so you want to stick with the story. 00:39:20.310 --> 00:39:24.514 -Exactly. I'm actually going to move out of the way for a second 00:39:24.614 --> 00:39:29.086 because if you can see behind me the map in my office 00:39:29.252 --> 00:39:31.588 is actually my favorite map of all time. 00:39:31.855 --> 00:39:36.693 It is war dogs that were used in the Pacific Theater. 00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:41.732 If you can see they're all these little dots we're looking at the Pacific 00:39:41.865 --> 00:39:48.438 on the green dots are Marine Corps units that had actual working dogs. 00:39:48.805 --> 00:39:54.344 Here we know that policemen military, firefighters, they all use dogs 00:39:54.644 --> 00:39:58.915 but World War II was the official first to use of dogs. 00:39:59.316 --> 00:40:04.888 The red, that's where the army used the working dogs. 00:40:05.188 --> 00:40:10.894 Famous battles like Iwo Jima Guadalcanal, Okinawa 00:40:11.128 --> 00:40:15.732 they all had working dogs that did so well 00:40:15.899 --> 00:40:22.539 that they continued to use dogs in every aspect of the military from then on. 00:40:23.106 --> 00:40:28.445 Any book that I can read about World War II and dogs, sign me up. 00:40:28.812 --> 00:40:29.880 -[laughs]. 00:40:30.247 --> 00:40:32.382 -Now we're going to move a little bit more 00:40:32.416 --> 00:40:34.251 towards your research and your history. 00:40:34.384 --> 00:40:37.988 Gabriel wants to know why were they not allowed 00:40:38.088 --> 00:40:40.924 to speak their language at those schools? 00:40:41.191 --> 00:40:44.995 -Well, Kate, I think you did a great job of explaining that. 00:40:45.228 --> 00:40:48.932 The concept was that they wanted the Navajo 00:40:49.032 --> 00:40:53.603 well actually Indian Native American but since I wrote about the Navajos 00:40:53.737 --> 00:40:57.974 to be more part of the American culture. 00:40:58.141 --> 00:41:02.179 You have to realize people looked at things differently in times past. 00:41:02.312 --> 00:41:08.452 We're feeling like when other immigrants come to this country 00:41:08.552 --> 00:41:10.320 maybe the Irish or whatever 00:41:11.621 --> 00:41:15.192 they learned to speak English so anyone living here 00:41:15.292 --> 00:41:16.626 should learn to speak English. 00:41:16.760 --> 00:41:22.132 There was also a feeling that if they took the language away 00:41:22.232 --> 00:41:25.669 from them that would also help them be more part 00:41:25.769 --> 00:41:31.375 of the then current American culture. That was really basically it. 00:41:31.608 --> 00:41:33.744 They just wanted them to be more American 00:41:33.844 --> 00:41:36.079 which is quite ironic when you think about it 00:41:36.213 --> 00:41:39.649 because they were here before the Europeans. 00:41:40.050 --> 00:41:45.989 -Exactly. There's a story that comes from World War II 00:41:46.089 --> 00:41:49.192 where they had to keep this top secret 00:41:49.326 --> 00:41:54.297 so much that the commanders didn't even know that these units existed. 00:41:54.431 --> 00:41:58.135 Once they saw it in action once 00:41:58.402 --> 00:42:03.473 then all the commanders throughout the Pacific wanted these code talkers 00:42:03.573 --> 00:42:07.277 but they weren't quite sure what language they were speaking 00:42:07.577 --> 00:42:11.615 or who they were because they had gone to these schools 00:42:11.715 --> 00:42:13.617 and their culture had almost died out. 00:42:13.884 --> 00:42:19.589 It is ironic because World War II actually then helped save that culture. 00:42:19.823 --> 00:42:22.926 Which brings us to our next question from Margo 00:42:23.160 --> 00:42:25.262 and I can always help answer this too 00:42:25.395 --> 00:42:28.598 but why did the military want to keep code talkers 00:42:28.732 --> 00:42:32.135 and have their secrets after World War II? 00:42:32.469 --> 00:42:33.670 Why couldn't they just talk about it? 00:42:33.770 --> 00:42:38.975 -Well, I'm not a military expert but my guess would be 00:42:39.242 --> 00:42:44.214 that though they hoped that would be the war to end all wars 00:42:44.715 --> 00:42:47.451 there was always a possibility there will be future wars. 00:42:47.551 --> 00:42:50.687 I'm guessing because that code had been so successful 00:42:50.921 --> 00:42:54.391 the Japanese military was never able to decipher that code. 00:42:54.591 --> 00:42:57.561 I'm guessing that they wanted to keep that 00:42:57.694 --> 00:42:59.496 in their back pocket like a secret weapon. 00:42:59.696 --> 00:43:03.633 They didn't want the code talkers to talk about it 00:43:03.800 --> 00:43:07.838 because they didn't want anybody to know in case they needed to use it again. 00:43:08.105 --> 00:43:10.707 That would be my best guess. 00:43:10.874 --> 00:43:14.945 Kate, maybe you have more information than I do about that. 00:43:15.212 --> 00:43:18.048 -No, you're exactly right. 00:43:18.215 --> 00:43:25.956 World War II ends in 1945 and we're plunged right into the cold war. 00:43:26.289 --> 00:43:29.960 We're not quite sure exactly what that's going look like 00:43:30.227 --> 00:43:31.661 or what we're going to have to do. 00:43:31.795 --> 00:43:34.231 We've soon to go fight a war in Korea 00:43:34.464 --> 00:43:37.100 and the code talkers are used there as well. 00:43:37.467 --> 00:43:41.104 Basically, they were afraid that if they declassified it 00:43:41.171 --> 00:43:43.140 and allowed people to talk about it 00:43:43.373 --> 00:43:46.643 then whoever our enemy may be in the future 00:43:46.777 --> 00:43:49.346 might be able to decipher that code. 00:43:49.713 --> 00:43:55.786 Which brings us to, were there any other Native Americans 00:43:55.952 --> 00:43:59.623 in World War II other than the Navajo code talkers? 00:43:59.923 --> 00:44:02.359 You have a question from California about that one? 00:44:02.659 --> 00:44:05.362 -I don't have my book right in front of me 00:44:05.462 --> 00:44:07.698 but if you read the author's note in the back I believe 00:44:07.798 --> 00:44:08.999 if I'm remembering correctly 00:44:09.099 --> 00:44:12.602 there were 40 other Native American tribes 00:44:12.736 --> 00:44:14.805 that were represented in the military services. 00:44:14.938 --> 00:44:18.975 Not all of them were necessarily working in the code talking manner-- 00:44:19.309 --> 00:44:22.045 The list is in the back of the book. 00:44:22.345 --> 00:44:24.247 You can get it completely from there 00:44:24.347 --> 00:44:29.186 but absolutely, there were mostly men. 00:44:29.319 --> 00:44:31.955 I don't believe there were any women from other tribes 00:44:32.055 --> 00:44:34.057 who were involved in the war effort. 00:44:34.391 --> 00:44:38.695 -I've actually got two facts about that or really three. 00:44:38.929 --> 00:44:44.468 The tribes often are considered within America 00:44:44.701 --> 00:44:51.708 their own nations and almost every nation declared war on the Axis 00:44:51.808 --> 00:44:56.446 right after America and the allies declared war on the Axis powers. 00:44:56.780 --> 00:45:05.222 They were at war themselves and 99% of eligible Native American young men 00:45:05.322 --> 00:45:08.158 had signed up to join the war effort 00:45:08.258 --> 00:45:11.261 only a couple months after World War II started. 00:45:11.428 --> 00:45:16.933 That's the highest percentage of any ethnic group out there by far. 00:45:17.100 --> 00:45:22.572 I only learned this yesterday when I was researching other Native American tribes 00:45:22.706 --> 00:45:31.348 that the first code ever transmitted and decoded on d-day it was not Navajo 00:45:31.515 --> 00:45:36.620 but it was a Native American code talker actually a Choctaw Indian. 00:45:36.987 --> 00:45:40.390 I thought that was really cool that code talkers 00:45:40.557 --> 00:45:42.259 although they're famous in the Pacific 00:45:42.359 --> 00:45:44.761 they were used in other places too. 00:45:45.162 --> 00:45:49.966 I learned a couple of those things yesterday. 00:45:50.200 --> 00:45:52.335 -I love history now. 00:45:52.469 --> 00:45:54.037 I mean you just keep learning these things 00:45:54.137 --> 00:45:57.874 and how they're tied together. [laughs] They're great. 00:45:58.175 --> 00:46:01.311 -Speaking of history in World War II and dogs 00:46:01.445 --> 00:46:05.849 do you have any other books planned about dogs in war 00:46:06.016 --> 00:46:07.484 that you're allowed to talk about? 00:46:07.617 --> 00:46:10.087 -Thank you for asking it that way. 00:46:10.187 --> 00:46:14.257 I do not like to talk about books I'm working on very much at all 00:46:14.358 --> 00:46:17.527 but I have written six books set in World War II 00:46:17.661 --> 00:46:20.263 and after I finished Code Word Courage 00:46:20.397 --> 00:46:23.467 I felt like I wanted to explore a different time period. 00:46:23.600 --> 00:46:28.305 I've actually moved away from the war and going a little farther back in time. 00:46:28.438 --> 00:46:30.574 This is all I'm going to say 00:46:30.674 --> 00:46:33.143 but I'm working on a new book set in 1929. 00:46:33.310 --> 00:46:37.247 I just needed a little break from World War II 00:46:37.381 --> 00:46:40.150 to look at a few things differently. 00:46:40.250 --> 00:46:44.755 So far there's not a dog in this book but I'm not finished. 00:46:44.888 --> 00:46:47.491 We never knows how that's going to turn out. 00:46:48.025 --> 00:46:51.361 -That's a great segment. Into the next couple of questions 00:46:51.528 --> 00:46:53.196 we're going to ask and we're going to move away 00:46:53.330 --> 00:46:57.768 from the historical part and into more of the English language arts part. 00:46:58.068 --> 00:46:59.936 The first question I'm going to ask 00:47:00.070 --> 00:47:06.009 is why did you choose to tell this story from two different perspectives? 00:47:06.376 --> 00:47:08.445 -That is a really great question. 00:47:08.678 --> 00:47:11.148 I wrestled with that myself, how to do that. 00:47:11.481 --> 00:47:17.387 Well, actually, there's three perspectives because Bear also tells a little bit 00:47:17.454 --> 00:47:17.921 -True. 00:47:18.221 --> 00:47:24.861 -I felt like I would be able to tell the story more fully if I use two points of view. 00:47:24.961 --> 00:47:30.801 For example, so much of what Denny was doing as a code talker Billy 00:47:31.134 --> 00:47:32.369 would not be able to see that. 00:47:32.502 --> 00:47:35.939 I suppose I could have had him write her a letter 00:47:36.039 --> 00:47:39.643 but yet he wouldn't have been allowed to tell her what he was doing in a letter. 00:47:39.776 --> 00:47:43.346 As I wrestled with the different possibilities 00:47:43.580 --> 00:47:48.618 it seemed to me that the best way to fully tell that story 00:47:48.719 --> 00:47:50.420 was to use two points of view. 00:47:50.554 --> 00:47:53.523 I did that in Liberty as well. 00:47:53.690 --> 00:47:58.362 Sometimes, the story just seems to need the fullness 00:47:58.462 --> 00:48:04.835 of the experiences of two main characters to honor the story fully. 00:48:04.968 --> 00:48:09.039 -Awesome. It's true. 00:48:09.172 --> 00:48:12.409 Bear, we forgot about Bear so it's really is three perspectives. 00:48:12.576 --> 00:48:13.276 -[laughs]. 00:48:13.577 --> 00:48:15.779 -Students in South Carolina want to know 00:48:15.946 --> 00:48:19.983 what are some tips then to be a successful writer? 00:48:20.283 --> 00:48:23.920 -The first tip, it might seem obvious 00:48:24.054 --> 00:48:26.456 but it's to read as much as you can. 00:48:26.590 --> 00:48:28.558 I visit a lot of schools. 00:48:28.692 --> 00:48:30.527 In fact, I'm not at my home right now. 00:48:30.660 --> 00:48:31.695 I'm in Savannah. 00:48:31.828 --> 00:48:36.066 I've been visiting schools here and when I go to school I notice 00:48:36.199 --> 00:48:39.469 that a lot of kids will get hooked on one genre of book 00:48:39.603 --> 00:48:41.204 for example, let's say fantasy. 00:48:41.304 --> 00:48:43.673 I would say if you want to be a writer 00:48:43.807 --> 00:48:48.912 yes, read your fantasy but try to read in a variety of different genres 00:48:49.012 --> 00:48:50.981 and that will help that whole sense 00:48:51.114 --> 00:48:53.784 of story get into your bones and into your heart. 00:48:53.950 --> 00:48:57.721 This other tip I know it's going to sound funny 00:48:57.888 --> 00:49:00.357 but it's really just to pay attention. 00:49:00.524 --> 00:49:05.028 For example, I would never have written the book Liberty 00:49:05.128 --> 00:49:09.433 had I not visited the World War II museum on a really hot day. 00:49:09.599 --> 00:49:11.601 I needed to be someplace cool 00:49:11.702 --> 00:49:14.337 and I was in New Orleans and they had air conditioning. 00:49:14.438 --> 00:49:17.708 I went inside and, of course, got lost in there 00:49:17.841 --> 00:49:18.809 because it's so wonderful. 00:49:18.909 --> 00:49:22.813 It was there that I learned about Andrew Jackson Higgins and his boats. 00:49:22.913 --> 00:49:25.816 I paid attention to what I was learning there. 00:49:25.916 --> 00:49:28.452 I was so curious I had to learn more. 00:49:28.585 --> 00:49:30.487 That led to my writing another book. 00:49:30.587 --> 00:49:33.690 I just encourage you to pay attention wherever you are 00:49:33.790 --> 00:49:35.826 and to read as much as you can. 00:49:35.959 --> 00:49:39.396 I think those are two good tips that will get you a long way 00:49:39.496 --> 00:49:40.864 as to being a good writer. 00:49:41.031 --> 00:49:46.603 The students in Bluffton South Carolina say come visit us 00:49:46.670 --> 00:49:48.338 -I want to. I want to come to Bluffton. 00:49:48.472 --> 00:49:51.908 I think you're just over the bridge or something, right? [laughs]. 00:49:52.743 --> 00:49:55.979 -We'll do one more English language arts question 00:49:56.113 --> 00:49:58.582 and Heather wants to know as a writer 00:49:58.682 --> 00:50:01.184 why do you send rough drafts first 00:50:01.318 --> 00:50:05.022 and not just a totally polished draft right away? 00:50:05.322 --> 00:50:07.557 -Okay, that's a really great question. 00:50:07.691 --> 00:50:11.695 Actually, the truth of it is I work with an editor at Scholastic 00:50:11.828 --> 00:50:14.464 but she doesn't even get to see my rough drafts 00:50:14.598 --> 00:50:18.602 because I have to tell you my rough drafts are so rough and terrible. 00:50:18.769 --> 00:50:24.608 I also co-write non-fiction picture books with a good friend named Mary Nethery. 00:50:24.841 --> 00:50:28.445 Mary is the trusted first reader of all of my rough drafts. 00:50:28.678 --> 00:50:32.883 My little heart is still fragile at that stage that I don't-- 00:50:32.983 --> 00:50:35.419 I want someone who I know really cares about me. 00:50:35.485 --> 00:50:37.587 Mary reads my rough drafts. 00:50:37.754 --> 00:50:40.624 She usually gives me lots of positive 00:50:40.724 --> 00:50:43.293 but she usually says something like, "I really like the story" 00:50:43.527 --> 00:50:44.961 "but you should probably have a plot." 00:50:45.128 --> 00:50:49.966 Then, I go back and look at ways to have a plot, and so I work on that. 00:50:50.100 --> 00:50:51.568 When I send it to my editor 00:50:51.635 --> 00:50:54.538 she may be getting the third draft or the fourth draft. 00:50:54.738 --> 00:50:58.041 I'm trying to send her something that's pretty solid 00:50:58.208 --> 00:51:01.978 that she'll be able to say, "Okay, yes, I can see this. 00:51:02.079 --> 00:51:05.482 Maybe you could [?] this part or [?] that part. 00:51:05.582 --> 00:51:08.085 She's a very busy person. 00:51:08.185 --> 00:51:09.653 She has lots of books to shepherd 00:51:09.786 --> 00:51:13.123 and so I want to make sure that I give her something 00:51:13.290 --> 00:51:16.660 that she can have time for and deal with. 00:51:16.827 --> 00:51:20.997 Not even my beloved editor gets to see my first draft 00:51:21.098 --> 00:51:23.066 because they are really horrible. 00:51:23.367 --> 00:51:27.003 There's hope for anyone else out there who writes terrible first drafts. 00:51:27.237 --> 00:51:30.574 -That's awesome. Where do you do most of your writing? 00:51:30.774 --> 00:51:37.381 -I'm lucky, I have a little office in my house and that's where I do most of my writing. 00:51:37.581 --> 00:51:41.485 A lot of my research takes me away to the places 00:51:41.585 --> 00:51:44.187 so I'll do note taking in other places. 00:51:44.321 --> 00:51:48.091 When I get ready to revise that terrible first draft 00:51:48.258 --> 00:51:54.164 I like to go to a really noisy coffee shop and read through the manuscript. 00:51:54.297 --> 00:51:59.169 If I get distracted by the noise of the coffee maker or someone talking nearby 00:51:59.369 --> 00:52:03.340 I know that's a place in the manuscript that I need to work on 00:52:03.473 --> 00:52:06.076 because I've lost interest or been distracted. 00:52:06.209 --> 00:52:11.014 I love to be in a noisy place when I'm reading through for revision. 00:52:11.148 --> 00:52:16.353 -Awesome. I also like to be, when I'm working 00:52:16.420 --> 00:52:18.422 have a little bit of background noise as well. 00:52:18.555 --> 00:52:23.927 We've only got time for a couple more questions before our time is up with Kirby. 00:52:24.127 --> 00:52:29.232 Alec wants to know, what was the first book you ever tried to write? 00:52:29.499 --> 00:52:32.069 -The first book I ever tried to write 00:52:32.202 --> 00:52:35.939 which did not get published was a picture book inspired by my little sister 00:52:36.073 --> 00:52:37.007 my baby sister. 00:52:38.442 --> 00:52:40.644 My mom had this great red high heels. 00:52:40.777 --> 00:52:43.447 My little sister would put on this red high heels 00:52:43.580 --> 00:52:45.849 and when she put them on and went clumping around the house 00:52:45.949 --> 00:52:48.752 we couldn't call her by her name which was Lisa. 00:52:48.885 --> 00:52:51.722 We had to call her Mrs. Burns for some reason 00:52:51.855 --> 00:52:53.290 and that just tickled me. 00:52:53.457 --> 00:52:56.860 I tried so hard to write a picture book about a little girl 00:52:56.993 --> 00:52:59.730 who turns into someone else when she puts on her mom's shoes. 00:52:59.830 --> 00:53:01.965 I could never get that to work. 00:53:02.065 --> 00:53:04.801 That was the very first book I tried to send out. 00:53:04.935 --> 00:53:10.073 -Awesome. We actually had a question emailed to us a couple of days ago 00:53:10.207 --> 00:53:10.874 that I want to make sure. 00:53:11.007 --> 00:53:15.345 The third graders at Willo-Hill Christian School want to ask 00:53:15.479 --> 00:53:21.585 are there any Navajo code talkers that are still alive that we know about? 00:53:21.818 --> 00:53:24.955 -There are. I don't have all of their names. 00:53:25.155 --> 00:53:29.760 They're very few in number because you realize we're talking now in 2018 00:53:29.893 --> 00:53:35.298 and even if they were 16 years old like Mr. Bagawis when he enlisted 00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:39.703 that would make him very old by this point. 00:53:39.836 --> 00:53:41.471 There are a few left. 00:53:41.638 --> 00:53:46.376 There are non of the original 30 code talkers still living. 00:53:46.476 --> 00:53:49.780 That's the last one of those two-- 00:53:50.180 --> 00:53:55.152 they were the last to survive and he passed only several years ago. 00:53:55.585 --> 00:53:59.489 -Here, at the National World War II Museum 00:53:59.656 --> 00:54:01.324 and that is something that we focus on. 00:54:01.425 --> 00:54:07.397 It is collecting oral histories from veterans so that when the time passes 00:54:07.531 --> 00:54:10.200 and there are no more World War II veterans out there 00:54:10.333 --> 00:54:12.035 we still have those stories. 00:54:12.169 --> 00:54:15.806 That's how we have our code talkers 00:54:15.939 --> 00:54:18.341 that we just had a little portion we listened to. 00:54:18.675 --> 00:54:21.945 We collected his oral history a couple of years ago. 00:54:22.179 --> 00:54:30.420 Like Kirby said, of the original group that created the code, there are non left. 00:54:30.754 --> 00:54:35.625 There were over 420 that actually are considered code talkers. 00:54:35.726 --> 00:54:38.929 There are still a few that are left. 00:54:39.062 --> 00:54:43.900 They've actually gone back and visited the sites a couple of times. 00:54:44.067 --> 00:54:48.372 Isaac wants to know going back to English language arts 00:54:48.438 --> 00:54:51.541 how long does it take to get a story published? 00:54:51.775 --> 00:54:57.881 -Well, if you're talking from the time I finish the manuscript 00:54:57.981 --> 00:54:59.216 to sending it to my editor 00:54:59.349 --> 00:55:01.418 it would take about one year 00:55:01.551 --> 00:55:06.223 because the manuscript has to be copy-edited and the facts all have to be checked. 00:55:06.556 --> 00:55:09.092 Then, it has to be put in the form of a book. 00:55:09.192 --> 00:55:10.594 Then, it has to get a cover. 00:55:10.694 --> 00:55:14.164 From the time I turn in an accepted manuscript 00:55:14.264 --> 00:55:17.701 to the time I hold the book in my hand is about one year. 00:55:17.901 --> 00:55:20.637 You have to be patient when you're an author. 00:55:20.804 --> 00:55:27.044 -Definitely, yes. This is going to be our last question of the day. 00:55:27.210 --> 00:55:31.548 Then, we'll wrap up or coming back to Bluffton, South Carolina. 00:55:31.648 --> 00:55:36.687 Kirby, how do you decide what kind of personalities 00:55:36.820 --> 00:55:39.356 that your characters should have? 00:55:39.656 --> 00:55:41.458 Is there any kind of strategy that you do? 00:55:41.625 --> 00:55:42.793 -That is such a great question. 00:55:42.893 --> 00:55:48.231 Actually, it has to do with what I think the main problem 00:55:48.331 --> 00:55:52.135 or sometimes people call it the dramatic question of a story is. 00:55:52.569 --> 00:55:57.340 If it's about trying to find a friend 00:55:57.507 --> 00:56:04.514 I might make that character be a little prickly or hard to get to know 00:56:04.781 --> 00:56:06.616 so that you create a little friction 00:56:06.750 --> 00:56:08.885 between the problem you're trying to solve 00:56:08.985 --> 00:56:11.121 and the character who's trying to solve it. 00:56:11.254 --> 00:56:13.657 I do think about things like that. 00:56:13.824 --> 00:56:17.661 I also borrow personality traits from the people I know and love. 00:56:17.794 --> 00:56:21.231 Occasionally, I think they recognize themselves in the book. 00:56:21.298 --> 00:56:26.370 Mainly, I'm trying to think of-- this is what I'm trying to talk about in the story 00:56:26.503 --> 00:56:28.772 what kind of character would really struggle most with that? 00:56:28.939 --> 00:56:32.609 That is a big question I ask myself. 00:56:32.776 --> 00:56:37.147 Sometimes, I don't even know until I finish the first draft. 00:56:37.280 --> 00:56:38.982 I don't really answer all that for myself. 00:56:40.650 --> 00:56:43.487 -I feel it would be difficult. 00:56:43.587 --> 00:56:46.923 I remember writing books when I was in elementary school 00:56:47.090 --> 00:56:48.692 and it's definitely a process. 00:56:48.925 --> 00:56:50.694 The only way you're going to get better at it 00:56:50.827 --> 00:56:53.096 is to keep trying and to keep writing. 00:56:53.230 --> 00:56:57.200 We are going to wrap up here. 00:56:57.300 --> 00:57:04.074 I'm going to share out the museum's discount code one more time. 00:57:04.207 --> 00:57:08.011 If you haven't read the book you go to our website 00:57:08.111 --> 00:57:09.513 which is in the teacher guide 00:57:09.646 --> 00:57:13.083 or if you just go to our website and type in "Code Word Courage" 00:57:13.150 --> 00:57:16.653 it will pop up and if you use the code "Webinar" 00:57:16.887 --> 00:57:19.222 you'll have a 20% discount. 00:57:19.556 --> 00:57:21.825 Speaking of webinars 00:57:21.958 --> 00:57:26.430 we actually have another one coming up on January 25th 00:57:26.663 --> 00:57:29.666 for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 00:57:30.100 --> 00:57:33.303 where I will be interviewing a Holocaust survivor. 00:57:33.603 --> 00:57:36.773 I'm going to leave the last word to Kirby. 00:57:36.940 --> 00:57:40.077 I really appreciate you guys listening to us 00:57:40.277 --> 00:57:43.213 and learning about the code talkers with us 00:57:43.346 --> 00:57:45.015 at the National World War II Museum. 00:57:45.148 --> 00:57:47.884 -I'm so grateful for this opportunity 00:57:47.984 --> 00:57:50.787 because I really do love to talk about writing and about books. 00:57:50.921 --> 00:57:54.391 I was incredibly impressed with the questions that we got today. 00:57:54.524 --> 00:57:58.362 It really shows me that we do have good writers 00:57:58.462 --> 00:58:01.264 and readers out there who are participating in these webinars. 00:58:01.598 --> 00:58:04.301 Thank you for all your hard work too. 00:58:04.468 --> 00:58:07.237 Kate and the people who are participating. 00:58:07.471 --> 00:58:09.206 I wish I could get to Bluffton. 00:58:09.339 --> 00:58:10.474 [laughter] 00:58:10.640 --> 00:58:14.044 -All right. Don't stop reading and writing out there. 00:58:14.177 --> 00:58:17.414 I hope you tune in for our next webinar here 00:58:17.514 --> 00:58:19.049 at the National World War II Museum. 00:58:19.449 --> 00:58:21.118 Have a great Thursday, guys. 00:58:21.251 --> 00:58:22.719 -Bye.