Counting by 7s Author: Visit Amazon's Holly Goldberg Sloan Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0803738552 | Format: EPUB
Counting by 7s Description
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of 2013 :
Counting by 7's is a delightful, powerful, and beautifully written book that I can’t forget and want to give to everyone around me. Holly Goldberg Sloan's quirky characters nestle into your heart and stay there, particularly 12-year-old Willow Chance. A young genius obsessed with the number seven, plants, and diagnosing medical conditions (especially skin disorders that she can surreptitiously photograph) Willow is a true outsider looking for a way in. Her parents tether her to the world, and when they are killed in a car crash Willow’s comfortable sphere is shattered. Though a tragedy, the loss of her parents is also Willow’s entry into the lives of others. The bond she forms with an unlikely cast of characters is heartfelt and transformative. Like Willow’s beloved plants, these are people putting down new roots and rising toward the sun. --
Seira Wilson From School Library Journal
Gr 5-8–Twelve-year-old Willow Chase lived with her adoptive parents in Bakersfield, California. There in the midst of the high desert, she grew a garden in her backyard, her sanctuary. She was excited about starting a new school, hoping this time she might fit in, might find a friend. Willow had been identified in preschool as highly gifted, most of the time causing confusion and feelings of ineptness in her teachers. Now at her new school she is accused of cheating because no one has ever finished the state proficiency test in just 17 minutes, let alone gotten a perfect score. Her reward is behavioral counseling with Dell Duke, an ineffectual counselor with organizational and social issues of his own. She does make a friend when Mai Nguyen brings her brother, Quang-ha, to his appointment, and their lives begin to intertwine when Willow's parents are killed in an auto accident. For the second time in her life she is an orphan, forced to find a “new normal.” She is taken in temporarily by Mai's mother, who must stay ahead of Social Services. While Willow sees herself as just an observer, trying to figure out the social norms of regular family life, she is actually a catalyst for change, bringing together unsuspecting people and changing their lives forever. The narration cleverly shifts among characters as the story evolves. Willow's philosophical and intellectual observations contrast with Quang-ha's typical teenage boy obsessions and the struggles of a Vietnamese family fighting to live above the poverty level. Willow's story is one of renewal, and her journey of rebuilding the ties that unite people as a family will stay in readers' hearts long after the last page.–Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OHα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
See all Editorial Reviews
- Age Range: 10 and up
- Grade Level: 5 and up
- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Dial; First Edition edition (August 29, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0803738552
- ISBN-13: 978-0803738553
- Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Meet twelve year-old black, bespectacled, self-aware genius and gardener Willow Chase, who is obsessed with the number 7; obsessed with studying and observing medical conditions, and obsessed with plants. Not long into the story, Willow is suddenly thrown out of the Garden when her white adoptive parents die in a horrific car accident.
Leading up to the accident, Willow has, herself, been following a collision course that begins with being referred by her school principal to a counselor named Dell Duke, this being the result of the principal's determination that Willow has cheated on a State standardized test. (She completed the test in 17 minutes and was the only student in the State to answer every question correctly, which might provide a clue as to why she hasn't been at all engaged with middle school, other than as a silent observer of bizarre behaviors.)
Counselor Dell Duke (who categorizes the students he works with as THE STRANGE, MISFITS, ODDBALLS, and LONE WOLVES), quickly learns that he needs a whole new category for this young woman. And in the wake of Willow's second loss of parents in her short life (having already been adopted the first time), it will be counselor Dell Duke; plus one of the other students he works with named Nguyen Quang-ha; plus Quang-ha's sister Nguyen Thi Mai; plus Quang-ha and Mai's mother Pattie; plus a taxi driver named Jairo Hernandez; who will affect and be affected by this amazing girl.
COUNTING BY 7s reminds me of BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE because of the way that Willow is saved from going to the pound (being thrown into The System) by unlikely heroine Pattie Nguyen (Quang-ha and Mai's mother), the Vietnamese immigrant proprietress of a nail salon.
Counting by 7's is simply a beautiful story. It speaks from the heart with a raw level of emotion that was unexpected and seldom seen in middle grade fiction. Its life affirming message is masterfully delivered with prose that is well written and thought provoking. There are absolutely no mis-steps as the author paints a picture of a young girl destroyed by grief and rebuilt by love.
Willow Chance is a twelve year old genius. She is devoted to her garden, her parents, and quietly learning to manage the intricacies of middle school when both of her parents are killed in a car accident. Her life becomes chaos, and it's only through the efforts of an unlikely group of people that she discovers a future for herself. Willow is an astounding character that I won't soon forget. She touched my heart, and made this story a delight to read from start to finish.
Willow is surrounded by a group of unique people carefully crafted and nuanced. None of these characters are perfect or clichéd, and always manage to deliver surprises. They each come into Willow's life needing something, and their stories add to a narrative that becomes complex and increasingly inspirational as they are all effected by Willow's unique view of the world.
I could point to many instances in the plot that were contrived, when events relied just a bit too much on coincidence to be believable, and when things work out just a bit too easy. To do so would be to deny the slight touch of magic that seems to permeate these pages. This is a story that made me smile. It made me want to read it again the minute I finished it. I was sorry it was over. I wanted to be with Willow as she mulled over the life lessons to be learned from a plant.
Counting by 7s Preview
Link
Please Wait...