Code of Honor

Code of Honor

• Genre: Fiction; YA thriller
• Originally Published: 2015
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile HL660L; grades 7-9
• Structure/Length: 92 chapters; approx. 293 pages; approx. 7 hours, 8 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Persian-American Kamran Smith, a high school star quarterback, leads an all-American life until his Army Ranger brother Darius is accused of being a terrorist. Guilty by association, Kamran takes extreme measures to prove his brother’s innocence—and his own.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Racial profiling; racism; gun death; the war on terror; violence; terrorism

Alan Gratz, Author

• Bio: Born 1972; holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee; currently lives in the mountains of North Carolina; member of the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame; awarded the National Jewish Book Award, the Young Hoosier Book Award, and a Malka Penn Award for Human Rights Honor (2017) for his novel Refugee
• Other Works: Project 1065 (2016); Refugee (2017); Allies (2019); Ground Zero (2021); Two Degrees (2022)
• Awards: YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers (2016); International Thriller Writers Best Young Adult Thriller Nominee (2016); South Carolina Junior Book Award Winner (2018-2019)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Persian-American Identity
• Conflicting Definitions of Patriotism
• Brotherhood and the “Code of Honor”

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the historical and social contexts regarding the effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks on US domestic and international policy and the rise of hate crimes and discrimination in the US.
• Analyze paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Persian-American Identity and Conflicting Definitions of Patriotism.
• Research and present a report or other research product on a famous military leader that demonstrates an understanding of different interpretations of patriotism based on textual details.