Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

When the Taliban first started to change things in Afghanistan, people welcomed them.  At the time, Fadi Nurzai and his family - father Habib, mother Zafoona, older sister Noor and young sister Mariam - were living in the United States.  Fadi's father had an American PhD and spoke English, and believing he could help rebuild Afghanistan with the Taliban, he moved his family back to Kabul.  But it didn't take long for the Taliban to begin suppressing the Afghan people and when they approached Habib, asking to join them, he knew it was time to leave.

One night, the family finds themselves waiting for a truck that will take then across the border into Pakistan, then on to the United States.  11 year-old Fadi's job is to hold on to Mariam, now 6, and make sure she gets on the truck safely. Suddenly, there is a swarm of other people trying to get on the truck, too, and Mariam drops her precious Gulmina, an old Barbie doll wearing a bright pink burka. When she tries to retrieve it, she lets go of Fadi's hand just as Habib pulls him onto the truck, which speeds away as the Taliban chases it, leaving Mariam behind.

Consumed with guilt, Fadi soon finds himself in a Fremont, CA middle school.  His mother, who had been ill in Kabul, has gotten worse because of losing Mariam; to help the family out, Noor has taken a job at a McDonald's until high school starts, and Habib, despite that American PhD, is driving a cab. And there are many people in Afghanistan are looking Mariam, but so far, no luck.

Fadi, who loved to take photographs with his dad in Kabul before it was banned, finds his way into a photo club and a new friend named Ahn Hong.  When it is announced that there is to be a photography contest in which first prize is a photo safari and one of the places the winner can choose to go is India, it is like a dream come true for Fadi.   He immediately makes plans to win, get to India, then Pakistan and find Mariam., who the family now knows has made it to Peshawar.

But then, on September 11, 2001, terrorists from al-Qaeda fly two planes into the World Trade Center, and one into the Pentagon and everything suddenly changes.  Now, Fadi finds himself the target of school bullies who think he is Muslim (he is actually Pukhtun) and decide he needs to pay for what was done.  And pay he does.

Between bullies, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the guilt he feels about losing Mariam, Fadi knows he need to talk to someone and take responsibility for his sister before he is eaten up by guilt.  He knows it the honorable thing to do, but somehow Fadi just can't talk about what happened that night in Afghanistan yet.  Meanwhile, they are still looking for Mariam and Fadi desperately needs to win that photography contest so he and his father can rescue her.

Shooting Kabul was, to say the least, a page-turner.  I found Fadi to be a very likable character and thought his relationship with his father was wonderfully touching.  Noor is a typical teenager who usually wants nothing to do with her brother, but still comes through for him when he needs it.  In fact, the theme of family is strong throughout the story, as important as their religion is to them, and family members are very connected to each other, and that includes their very supportive extended family.

The other dominate theme is racism and the spike in race-related incidents after 9/11 towards anyone who looks like they might be Muslim.  Because of that, here is name calling and some violence in the novel.  I thought the example of Mr. Singh, the ice-cream man who is a Sikh, being beaten up by people who assume if you wear a turban, you must be Muslim was very telling  I remember riding the bus to school in the Bronx and everyday there was a man, a Sikh, on it going to work.  After 9/11, I didn't see him for about a week, then he was back, black and blue and wearing a button that said he was a Sikh.  I can't tell you how sad that made me.

Shooting Kabul is an excellent companion book to read while studying contemporary American history since it manages to make a very complicated period of time understandable for young readers. Habib's explanation to Mariam about what is going on in Afghanistan and why they must leave requires no prior knowledge of the situation to understand what he tells her.  And as the story unfolds, things become clearer for today's middle grader who might not completely understand why there is still so much animosity towards Muslims and anyone who looks like one in this country.

A Reading Group Guide is available from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was purchased for my personal library

Operation Oleander by Valerie O. Patterson

Anyone living in an area where oleander grows knows that although its flower may be pretty, it is a highly poisonous plant.  And that makes it the perfect metaphor for Valerie O. Patterson's novel Operation Oleander.

Living in army base housing at Fort Spencer, Florida, and with her father deployed to Afghanistan along with the mother of her best friend, Meriwether Scott, ninth grader Jess Westmark came up with what should have been the perfect idea for staying close to her dad.  Along with Meriwether and their friend Sam Butler, son of the base commander, Jess has been faithfully setting up a table in the PX to collect school supplies to send to an orphanage for young Afghan girls.  Jess named the project Operation Oleander because she noticed that this plant, which is plentiful in Florida, was also growing right outside the orphanage.

Things went well with Operation Oleander and boxes full of school supplies had already been sent to Afghanistan, even if Meriwether and Sam were a little less enthusiastic that Jess was about the project.  Then came word one Saturday morning that there had been a bombing at an orphanage involving soldiers from Fort Spencer.  Suddenly life changes for everyone as news comes out that two soldiers had been killed and one of them was Meriwether's mother, while Jess's father had been gravely injured.

Now, Jess must deal with her worry about her dad, as well as her own guilt knowing that he and Mrs. Scott were unofficially at the orphanage delivering the school supplies collected by Operation Oleander.  And what about Meriwether, who now blames Jess for her mother's death and wants nothing more to do with her?

But Jess also wants the project to continue.  After all, wasn't it her father who taught her the meaning of Duty, Honor, Country?  For Jess, that means that now isn't the time to give up, because if she does, evil wins.

Operation Oleander is a nice book about families coping with a family member being deployed to Afghanistan and living on an army base.   I found the story to be very readable, and well written, though I was often very annoyed at Jess as a character.  Sometimes she behaved like a younger girl, other times she seemed insensitive to anyone else's feelings and her reactions felt off base.   If my dad were as gravely injured as her dad was, I think that would be the number one thing on my mind and I don't think I would have revisited the idea of Operation Oleander until sometime later.   On the other hand, I think Meriwether's reactions are spot on.

Jess was also an orphan, adopted by the Westmark's as a baby.  There are no issues about this in the book, which is nice because so often adoptee feelings of not belonging are the crux of a novel's storyline (which is a valid storyline, but would have really overloaded Operation Oleander if it had been included).  Still, I would like to have learned more about her adoption other than that her real name is Jess since she is always quick correct people who call her Jessica.  Why Jess?

I also think that if Patterson had stuck with the main storyline, this would have been a much better book, because by the end of the book, there was just too much going.  Introducing a religious protest at Mrs. Scott's funeral and Jess's reaction to it were just a little over the top for me.  Though now outlawed, I know these occurred in the past, it was just too much here.

Despite these things, I would still recommend Operation Oleander because it is a poignant story of kids coping with war and military life, and should have wide appeal and will certainly spark many conversations about whether or not the military should participate in humanitarian endeavors in a war zone.  To that end, I should say that when my Kiddo outgrew her beanie babies, I donated all the ones that had no religious significance to the army, who gave them out to the children in Afghanistan, so I guess I am on the pro-side of humanitarian endeavors by the military (for more information on that, click HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL