Operation Oleander

by Valerie O. Patterson

Overview

“Full of detail about Army life, Patterson’s elegant prose brings readers deep inside Jess’s conflicted point of view.” —Publishers Weekly

Ninth grader Jess Westmark had the best of intentions when she started Operation Oleander to raise money for a girls’ orphanage in Kabul. She named her charity for the flower that grows both in her Florida hometown and in Afghanistan, where her father is deployed. But on one of her father's trips to deliver supplies to the orphans, a car bomb explodes nearby and her father is gravely injured. Worse, her best friend’s mother and some of the children are killed. Is this all Jess’s fault?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544439351
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/05/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Valerie O. Patterson holds an MFA in Children's Literature from Hollins University, where she twice received the Shirley Henn Award for Creative Scholarship. She has also won a Work-in-Progress Award for her writing from the SCBWI. Valerie is an attorney in her day job and lives with her husband in Leesburg, Virginia.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Many young readers will identify with the day-to-day trepidation felt by Jess, Meriwether, and the other families living on the base."
—VOYA, 3Q 4P M J

"Full of detail about Army life, Patterson's elegant prose brings readers deep inside Jess's conflicted point of view and the many stresses she is under, as she reevaluates her role as a member of a military family."
—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

"Many young readers will identify with the day-to-day trepidation felt by Jess, Meriwether, and the other families living on the base."
—VOYA, 3Q 4P M J

"Full of detail about Army life, Patterson's elegant prose brings readers deep inside Jess's conflicted point of view and the many stresses she is under, as she reevaluates her role as a member of a military family."
—Publishers Weekly

"Patterson poignantly depicts war's effect on those at home as Jess and her friends absorb and react to the events. This solid novel joins the growing number of books illustrating the war's effect on Afghan people."
—Booklist

"Patterson has an amazing ability to convey the tension and fear that families and friends of deployed soldiers bear every day and the heart-stopping terror when news programs show violence against troops that may result in one of their loved ones being wounded or dead."
—School Library Journal

"Patterson writes with compassion for both sides of this thorny issue, and her steady focus on the emotional trauma of the stateside teens keeps the story from devlolving into a coolly cerebral exercise in anti-terrorism strategy."
—Bulletin —

From the Publisher

Soon-to-be ninth-grader Jess lives by the code her Army father taught her, holding his words of honor and duty close while he is serving in Afghanistan. She and her best friends Meriwether and Sam, who live on the same Florida Army base as Jess, are collecting school supplies and donations for a girl’s orphanage in Kabul; Jess, who was adopted, feels a special connection to the orphaned girls. When a bomb goes off near the orphanage, Jess’s father is badly injured and Meriwether’s mother is killed, sending shockwaves through Jess’s close-knit community. Her devastation is compounded by Meriwether blaming her for the tragedy, but Jess still believes in the work they were doing. Full of detail about Army life, Patterson’s (The Other Side of Blue) elegant prose brings readers deep inside Jess’s conflicted point of view and the many stresses she is under, as she reevaluates her role as a member of a military family. The conclusion is uplifting but retains the complexity of Jess’s struggle to act in a way that reflects her convictions. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Good intentions go horribly wrong when American soldiers dropping off donations at an Afghanistan orphanage are viciously attacked. She was the one who organized the donation project, Operation Oleander, collecting money and school supplies on the Florida Army base where her family lives while her father is deployed to Afghanistan. With the somewhat reluctant help of the base commander's son, Sam, and her best friend, Meriwether, she ran the volunteer operation. Jess' father was seriously injured in the attack, but even worse, Meriwether's mother was killed, along with several orphans. Now Jess has to deal with her own grief and concern over her father's condition, as well as rejection by Meriwether, who blames her for what has happened. In her debut, Patterson uses attractively descriptive language to spin her tale; unfortunately, it often feels more like the author's perspective than the authentic thoughts of this rising high school freshman: "My voice is tight, taut as Sam's sailboat rope when the wind pushed the mainsail." While other characters are largely predictable and lightly sketched, their shortcomings are less critical to the believability of the story than Jess' imperfect inner voice, as she ultimately finds a way to cope with the tragedy. Although it deals with an important topic, this effort fails to fully live up to its potential. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews