Books for Christian Girls: "Operation: Happy" by Jenni L. Walsh

About this book:

  “A girl, her dog, and the list that saved them...
    As World War II enters her backyard, a young girl tries to keep her family together and cope with the war by completing a bucket list with her best friend: her dog Happy. Featuring a dog’s POV and inspired by real-life experiences of a young Pearl Harbor survivor, this historical middle-grade novel will inspire readers 8-12 to find courage in any situation.
   It’s 1940, and Jody is moving with her military family yet again—this time to a small naval base in Pearl Harbor. She’s always created a “top ten” list for each new home to help her adjust, and with Hawaii being so beautiful and her loyal dog Happy by her side, it’s easy to find things to add.
    But Jody’s mom is convinced the island is dangerous and starts constantly practicing first aid. Jody also learns that Happy is beginning to slow down. To cope, she starts a list of fun things they can do together, like journeying to a Fountain of Youth. “Operation: Happy” gives her something to focus on beyond the scary new experiences, like air raid drills and Yellow Fever vaccinations.
    Before long, everyone’s worst fears come true: Pearl Harbor is attacked. In the aftermath, Jody’s father must stay behind as the rest of the family is evacuated, and Jody promises him she will keep everyone together. But things are hard in San Francisco, where she feels like an outsider. Worse, her mother has become depressed, and Jody worries she and her sister will have to go to an orphanage. With Happy by her side, Jody hatches a brave plan to keep the family safe … Will Operation: Happy see them through?”

Series: Seems to be a stand-alone novel.

Spiritual Content- A couple mentions of those in the Bible; A mention of thanking Jesus; A mention of God blessing the Marines; A mention of Bibles; A mention of church going; A mention of Sunday School; A mention of Jewish refugees;
             *Note: “My god” is said by Jody’s father; Mentions of the rumored fountain of youth & Jody wondering if it will work on dogs (*Spoiler* When she sneaks out with him to go to the cave, she thinks that the “magical water” must be working because Happy looks better *End of Spoiler*); A couple mentions of smiles that could rival the Wicked Witch of the West (including Jody having one and it noting “I smile, a little wicked witch coming out of me”); A couple mentions of people acting crazy during a full moon.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form of ‘crap’, a ‘dang’, a ‘darn’, a ‘doggone it’, a ‘duh’, a ‘holy mackerel’, a ‘my god’ (said by Jody’s father), a ‘shut it’, a ‘worked our tails off’, two forms of ‘dumb’, and two ‘shoot’s; A mention of a cuss word (said by Jody, which typically would have her mother get a bar of soap); A bit of sarcasm & eye rolling; Gunfire, Going through gunfire and bombs, Bombings, Explosions, Blackout drills, Air Raid drills, Fires, the aftermath of the bombing, Screams and crying, & being scared (up to semi-detailed to detailed); Recalling the bombings & gunfire (barely-above-not-detailed); Jody and her sister are given the jobs of loading machine guns and loading the guns’ belts; Jody’s mom is very concerned about their family moving to Hawaii (Pearl Harbor; Her mom had a dream and Jody says she’s “spooked” and scared, which makes Jody nervous and concerned); *Spoiler* Jody’s mom wants to send her and her sister to the mainland; Jody and her sister are taken to another place after the bombing to stay with another family; Jody is very concerned and scared for her parents and being away from them; A bit later, Jody, her sister, their mother, and Happy leave to go to the mainland *End of Spoiler*; *Spoiler* Jody is worried that her and her sister may be taken away from their mother due to her being unable to take care of them because of her sadness/depression; Jody’s friends suggests for her to forge her mother’s signature on a school paper as Jody is concerned about her mom not being able to do it; Jody does forge the signature on her paper and is concerned that she’ll do it again and again if it’s to help her family, so she contacts her father *End of Spoiler*; *Spoiler* Because of her mom’s sadness, Jody plans to deceive her teacher about her mother being at an event, which Jody feels guilty about because Marines aren’t supposed to deceive, but wonders if “maybe it’s okay for a really, really good reason?”; The plan gets shaky when her mom actually shows up after Jody points out a friend dressing up as her mom to her teacher (this is not noticed by the adults nor is there is any repercussion for this) *End of Spoiler*; Jody orders Happy to attack a man who was going to causing harm to someone (See Sexual Content Spoiler, barely-above-not-detailed); Jody sneaks out (when not with her parents to get something for Happy); Jody, her sister, and their friends throw mangos at each other (food fight style) & Jody and her sister lie to their mother about it (because they don’t want to get them or their friends in trouble; Jody adds that they’ve never been the type of sisters who “blissfully work together or keep each other’s secrets. Until today, that is.”); Jody lies (to her mother and a new friend); Jody eavesdrops on her parents (multiple times; she doesn’t tell her sister for fear of being ratted out); Happy recalls his eyesight getting worse, overhearing the humans talk about the dangers of it, and is sad to be apart from his human; Set during pre-Pearl Harbor bombing, post-Pearl Harbor bombing, and World War II, & all about many mentions of all of it (the war, bombs/bombings, explosions, blackouts, sirens, fires, ships and submarines being destroyed, planes being shot down, gunfire, torpedoes, attacks, injuries, and deaths; up to semi-detailed); Mentions of other wars; Mentions of injuries, blood/bleeding, & illnesses; Mentions of a girl living at an orphanage while her father is fight overseas (her mother passed away years before); Mentions of children being taken away from their parents due to negligence; Mentions of eavesdropping; Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & deception (including Jody says that a Marine shouldn’t deceive);A handful of mentions of tattoos (a sailor teases Jody about getting her own and Jody thinks that her mom would rub a tattoo clear off of her body); A few mentions of Happy attacking intruders & their pain (told to do so); A few mentions of jails/prisons; A few mentions of throwing up & vomit; A few mentions of dog poop (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of cigarettes; A mention of jealousy; A mention of a bully; A mention of graffiti;
             *Note: See Sexual Content Spoiler Note about an attack on a young teen girl; Jody and her older sister have some moments of bickering/attitudes and teasing towards the other, but it’s pretty light (her sister keeps a diary and Jody doesn’t read it, despite that being hard for her; *Spoiler* Later, Peggy is upset at Jody thinking that she’s read it and throws a mango at her, but Jody didn’t read it as she couldn’t find it; Their mother reads it twice, though, and apologizes towards the end *End of Spoiler*); Jody’s mother has signs of depression & sadness (*Spoiler* it starts about half-way through after leaving Hawaii; Jody mentions her mother being detached, uncommunicative, always wanting to sleep, and it being like she’s disappearing inside herself at night, but she comes back to her old self in the late morning; Jody is worried that someone might take her and her sister away from their mother due to it; Jody is afraid that she’s losing her mother and her sister; Towards the end, her mother makes improvements of getting better despite it being hard *End of Spoiler*); When seeing a Japanese maid, Jody thinks she’s the only one spooked by her despite the Pearl Harbor Bombing recently happening (her mother tells her that the maid could be a spy and to say nothing around her; The maid tells Jody that not all Japanese are bad); Mentions of Japanese-Americans being taken to camps (including children and a girl at Jody’s school), them being treated like animals by their own country, & some thinking that they can’t be trusted (Jody doesn’t think that is fair or right); Mentions of Happy being sluggish and getting older (Jody’s mom takes him to the vet for a once-over and the vet says he’s in his “golden years”, which we see in Happy’s point of view of the whole vet trip; Jody has never thought about life without Happy and hugs him tight and plans to make the most of whatever time they have left together); Mentions of celebrities (Shirley Temple, Amelia Earhart, the Andrew Sisters, and the Ink Spots); Mentions of books, authors, & fictional characters (Nancy Drew, Gone With the Wind, Under the Lilacs, Jo’s Boys, and Little Women); A handful of mentions of the yellow-fever vaccine, everyone on the island having to get it, & deaths of those who had yellow fever, malaria, and other diseases rather than combat; A few mentions of a car brand; A few mentions of movies (The Little Princess, Gone With the Wind); A couple mentions of brand names & items (Monopoly and Kleenex); A mention of Girl Scouts; A mention of rivalry between the different armed forces (such as a Navy father putting his family before his duty, which a Marine like Jody’s father wouldn’t do); A mention of someone moving zombielike; A mention of passing wind (gas).

Sexual Content- A few mentions of Jody’s older sister (age 13) having crushes;
             *Note: *Spoiler but important note* Jody’s 13-year-old sister, Peggy, is cornered by a man in the basement and Happy attacks the man at Jody’s command; It’s not said what happened besides Peggy being attacked and being incredibly scared; Their mom is out of it and doesn’t react except to gather Peggy in her arms on the couch while she sobs; Later, the man is called “unwell” after hesitation implying a different word would have liked to have been used by Jody’s father *End of Spoiler*; A handful of mentions of butts (a bruised one, butts in chairs, and freezing one off); A mention of a vet probing Happy’s “eyes, ears, belly, and other places”.

-Jody Zuber, age 11-12
-Happy the dog
                                1^st person P.O.V. switches between Jody & Happy
                                            Set in 1938 & 1940-1942
                                                        240 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

I went into this book thinking “please don’t make me cry, please don’t make me cry, please don’t make me cry” because, well, it’s a dog book and those have a high tendency to make me cry on average. I was relieved by the author’s dedication to dog lovers noting that Happy would be fine, but I still was nervous because “fine” doesn’t always mean the way I want it to be. I do admit to tearing up at times because of the unconditional love that Happy shows (as early as page eight). I don’t typically care for books with the point of view of an animal, but this one was really cute. Happy is a great dog—the goodest, really.

I feel like a had a pit in my stomach for the majority of this book, in all honesty. There’s something about reading about a major event in history through a middle-grader’s eyes that makes the event feel even more solemn to me. Maybe it’s because I can fill in the blanks with more historical details or just seeing a traumatic event happen, but it’s a different level compared to reading historical fiction told from adults’ perspectives.

This story is inspired by a real-life Pearl Harbor survivor named Joan Zuber Earle and her book telling the accounts of it all and the aftermath. Reading reviews of that book, it sounds like a lot of parts of this book actually happened to the real-life “Jody”, which makes me wonder what was fictional and what was real.

While published by Zonderkidz, there’s very little faith content shown in this book. I’m very sad that God’s name was taken in vain in my advance reader’s copy. I hope it’s not in the final edition of this book, but won’t know until I see or hear elsewise. Until then, I’m noting this use of language and hesitant to recommend this book to those under the age of 12 because of it, the war details, and the Sexual Content Spoiler note. I honestly have mixed feelings on this book and may end up dropping ratings if the use of God’s name in vain is in the final print edition of this book. If you look at this book as a secular-published mainstream book, then I think many would find this book a good resource and great for homeschool families especially. As a book published by a Christian publishing house, it’s disappointing for that alone.

[4/16/24 Update: God's name is taken in vain in the final edition of this book with an adult saying, "My god, that ship is listing," right when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. All rating have dropped a full star because of this.]

Based on the page number, I was expecting this book to continue for a couple more chapters, so I found the ending to be very sudden. Rereading it a couple times though, I found it to be a decent, open-end ending. The war is still going on, but Happy is alive and that was very important to me.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!