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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 oleander 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, and people are blaming Operation Oleander for turning the orphanage into a military target for the Taliban. Is this all Jess’s fault?
I thank my lucky stars that I haven't lost anyone to war, and my heart goes out to all of those in the Armed Forces. When I think about all of the kids who have parents in the military my heart breaks for them. To live in fear every day praying your parent(s) make it home is something I can't fathom. Jeff has lived with this fear and her nightmare comes true - her father is injured in an attack at an orphanage that Jess has been collecting school supplies for. What's worse, her best friend's mother is killed in the same attack. Jess has to somehow juggle all of these emotions of blaming herself over the death of her best friends mother, her father's injuries, and being the strong and steadfast big sister. Bless her, the girl tries. She has been taught to be tough, reliable, and a fine upstanding military daughter, and I was waiting for her to just break. She did, but not for long and her friend Sam was there beside her.
