Operation Yes

I received this book to review for another blog and I loved it. It is written for children who can read chapter books, but I found it to be entertaining and interesting. I am a military spouse so I could identify with much of the content, but I think non-military folks can read and understand the core concepts. My 10-year-old son has read most of it and also enjoyed reading it (he's now swept up in some other book). I bought this copy to send to my nephews who are not military kids. Waiting to hear what they think... GREAT book!

OPERATION YES by Sara Lewis Holmes is one of a number of new books just out that focus on issues relating to war in the Middle East. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are touching more and more lives here in the U.S., and many authors have taken on the challenge of including these current events in their new novels. OPERATION YES takes place here in the States on an Air Force base. Bo's father is one of the commanding officers at the base, and Bo attends the base school. Not a model student, Bo is not looking forward to the new school year, but he has promised his father he will at least try to behave. Miss Loupe is a new teacher at the school. One of the first things she shares with her students is the fact that she and her brother, Marc, once lived on the base and attended the school where she now teaches. Bo becomes fascinated with Miss Loupe's teaching strategies as he watches her actions on his very first day in her class. All the students are surprised and puzzled as they watch her tape off a large rectangle on the floor of their classroom, and then drag in an ugly, old couch. The taped off area and the ugly couch soon become the center of their afternoon activities. Miss Loupe is a master of improv theater, and she is determined to get each of her students involved. Something else new in Bo's life is the arrival of his cousin, Gari. Gari's mother, a nurse, has been deployed to Iraq, and Gari has come to live with Bo and his family on the base. She isn't happy about leaving her Seattle home and friends to trek across the country to the east coast, and it doesn't help that she is worried sick about her mother's safety in Iraq. Gari quickly begins hatching a plan that might either get her sent back to Seattle or bring her mother home. Bo is also dealing with deployment issues. Just when he is starting to like school and his new teacher, it's possible that his father may be sent to Afghanistan at the end of the year, which would mean another in a long history of moves for the family. Bo doesn't want to hold back his father's career, but he would do just about anything to remain with Miss Loupe and participate in her theatrical experiments. OPERATION YES takes readers into one teacher's unique classroom to witness students becoming excited about learning. Those same students face the emotional challenges of having direct connections with war and some of the toughest times for U.S. military personnel. This book provides needed subject matter for today's tweens and could be easily used to promote lively classroom discussion about war, service, and the relationships affected. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

I teach 7th graders, and this was one of those books that made me laugh out loud during our class silent reading time. As a result, I ended up with a waiting list of kids dying to read my classroom copies of Sara Lewis Holmes' latest title so they could see what all the laughing was about for themselves. They won't be disappointed. There's a lot to love about this book - the fact that it takes place at a school on a military base, the rich, wonderful and funny cast of characters (including a school librarian who's building a castle in the library and who curses by shouting the titles of famous children's books - love her!), and the sense of community and hope that the book provides. This is going to be an extra special book for kids in military families, but it's one that all kids will relate to and enjoy.

"'What happens when we place an object in the Taped Space?' she said. 'Do we see it differently than if it were in the teachers' lounge or in a living room? What happens when someone talks to it? When I insulted it with my own weak language and then the bold words of Shakespeare? How did you feel when I hit the couch? Did you feel differently when I treated it kindly? "Of course, thought Bo. How could you not? His hand twitched as if it wanted to rise into the air. "Wait. Maybe no one else had felt sorry for the couch. He wanted Miss Loupe to keep doing her crazy games, instead of real school, but he didn't want everyone to look at him like he was moldy shredded cheese either. He sat on his hand and glanced over at the window. It was sealed shut under rippled coats of yellowed paint. He wished Miss Loupe could push it open a tiny crack." The school year has commenced and Miss Loupe has begun her first-ever teaching job. She is the new sixth grade teacher at Young Oaks, a school in dire need of repair that adjoins the Air Force base in Reform, North Carolina. Growing up, herself, as part of a military family, Reunion was one of the bases where Miss Loupe lived as a child. In fact, the principal at Young Oaks who hired her was Miss Loupe's own sixth grade teacher. Miss Loupe is the only member of her family not directly serving in the military and it caused a deep crack in the family when she dropped out of the Air Force Academy after one year. "Art needs a frame" "Theater is the art of saying yes" Miss Loupe's student Bo Whaley is the son of Reunion's base commander. Last year Bo was Young Oaks' resident trouble-maker-in-chief, but this year's teacher seems the opposite of his fifth-grade nemesis Mr. Nix. Bo and his classmates are fascinated by this unusual young woman who sports rows of earrings, a tattoo, and a belly ring. She tells them that they are going to learn regular sixth grade material -- and that they need to cover the Handbook -- but she has also created the Taped Space, a temporary stage area at the front of the classroom. When she suddenly slips into her stealthy black dance slippers, it is time for the students to "see what happens when we say yes." For these students, who are so frequently moved away from friends and separated from family members, there are great psychological benefits in getting the chance to say yes. Through Bo and his schoolmates, we get a real sense of what it is to have to change homes and schools every couple of years. Author Sara Lewis Holmes -- herself, the wife of an Air Force pilot -- does a great job of showing us what this sort of childhood might be like: "He wondered how many houses from now he would be thinking back to this room, to this house, to this town, and know that everyone here had mostly forgotten who Bo Whaley was. It was eerie, like thinking about himself in a long hall of mirrors, each one smaller than the last." What is even worse than the moving around, of course, is the need