Counting by 7s

Title: Counting by 7s

 

Author: Holly Goldberg Sloan

 

Summary: 12-year-old Willow is a child genius who loves diagnosing medical conditions and planting/nature. As she starts middle school, she is sent to see a child counselor (by the school's recommendation) and during her meets with him, she meets two other children that are older than her; a brother and sister. She slowly forms a small friendship with them.

One day, she arrives at her house to find that her parents died earlier in the day in a car accident. Willow's friends, Mai and Quang-ha's mother offers to take her in while she waits for foster care, adoption, etc.

As Willow slowly recreates her life, she shows that one who goes through tragedy can come out being better than before.

 

Comments: I really enjoyed this book. It was recommended to me by a friend and I'm so glad that I decided to read it!

All the characters in the story were pretty well-developed for the most part, though I might have wanted to see a little more detail on Dell, the counselor.

Willow was such a likeable character and it was heartbreaking to see her going through such a tragedy; because her parents just seemed like such kind people who really understood her and I didn't know whether anyone else in the book could have that same connection with her. (Yes, I get pretty involved and intense in my reading - don't worry, I do know that she is just a fictional character!)

While I loved the book, I thought that the way Mai and Quang-ha lived with their mother just seemed somewhat unrealistic, even though they were poor. However, that can be overlooked and may have just been a little exaggerated to add some more intensity and drama to the book.

While this book is great and such a fine piece of writing, I must say that it is probably suitable for ages 10-12+ just because it is fairly long and some younger readers may be upset by all the tragedies and unfairness in this book.

This is probably going to go on my Top 10 list!

 

Complaints: I feel like the book might've wrapped up just a little too nicely; however it was good that the reader was able to find closure to the story by the end of the book.

 

Rating: 5 stars!