Oh, I have had such a fine fall of reading.
I was going to say a "happy" fall of reading, but that would be misleading because I have cracked some serious tear-jerkers, my friends.
And I love nothing better than a good book-induced cry.

So, today’s the first of four brief blurbs on the books I’ve loved and cried over recently.

Let it be on the record that I know and love Sara Lewis Holmes, but I’d have embraced Operation Yes if it’d been written by a perfect stranger. Because in Operation Yes-land, nobody’s a stranger for long. Mercy, this is an intimate and heart-felt tale.

Operation Yes is about military kids and the unique challenges and transitions they must reckon with — moving… goodbyes… fear for their parents in dangerous spots. And it’s about how they negotiate those challenges and shore each other up and become their own best selves in spite of — or because of — it all.

Which, of course, is what’s not unique to military kids. It’s what we want for all our kids. It’s what we want for ourselves. To become — in the face of challenge — bigger, wiser, stronger, more generous and more full of love, rather than diminished.

I was only the new kid in school once.
I was 13 when we moved from Colorado to Wisconsin.
It was …. hard.

I did not transcend it the way Bo and Gari do in the book.
I merely plowed through.
I  wish I’d had Ms. Loupe there to inspire me, and a backpack of little green men to hold me accountable.

Because the thing that is so awesome about Operation Yes is that the kids in the book do so much more than is absolutely required. And so does Sara Lewis Holmes. She could’ve written a smaller book — less complicated (structurally), less profound (emotionally), less true (logistically). And it still would’ve been a pretty sweet story about kids stuggling to find themselves with the help of a fine teacher and improv theater.

But why do just what’s required when we can do so much more? suggest Sara, Bo, Gari and Ms. Loupe.
And to them I say, Yes.
Yes.
Yes.