Comments for Counting by 7s

Counting by 7s: 09/16/14

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan is a middle grade book outside of my normal comfort zone of reading that will surely stick with me for years to come. Willow Chance is an usually bright child, living with her adopted parents in Bakersfield and happily working on her latest project — learning to speak Vietnamese — when her life is turned upside down.

Her parents are killed in a traffic accident and she will be tossed into foster care if she can't come up with a solution. With no relatives beyond her now dead parents, Willow turns to the mother of her Vietnamese speaking friends. It's an unusual one, but one that the mother accepts with gusto.

The death of parents can be a very maudlin topic but Holly Goldeberg Sloan keeps the tone upbeat and hopeful. She manages to create unique voices for all the different points of view — Willow, the school counselor, her new foster mother — and collectively they give a sense of hope and rebirth, rather than tragic endings.

Five stars

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