Counting By 7s - Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Willow Chance is a strange and sweet little girl. An unknown genius at twelve, she takes comfort in immersing herself in many strange quirks such as diagnosing the medical conditions of people around her, studying plant life with enthusiasm, and most importantly, counting by 7s. Due to these odd features though, Willow is awkwardly out of place and misunderstood in her preteen world. The only people she feels comfortable around are her adoptive parents, Roberta and Jimmy. But the worst things happen to the best of people, and when life brutally rips the two most important people from Willow's life leaving her practically an orphan, something breaks in her. No longer does she take comfort in her old habits, or anything at all even. The poor girl is taken in by the Nguyen family, a poor Vietnamese trio who run Happy Polish Nail Salon and live in the one room garage behind the shop. Even though she barely knows them, she feels most at home with them. With their help, and the help of possibly the worst ex-school counselor ever, Dell Duke, they keep her out foster care and leading a haphazard life, but a life nonetheless. Willow must learn to rebuild her broken spirit, and once again embrace life and all the positive things about it, instead of continuing on as an empty shell of her former self. "If you're lost, you might need to swim against the tide."

I really really really loved this book. It was so refreshingly individualistic, with the descriptive and unique writing style (plus the change in narrating through different characters), and the endearingly sweet characters who develop and learn through the course of the novel. And though a few aspects of the book came off as slightly unrealistic, I was personally able to look past them because of the quality things the rest of the book offered. Every character that encountered Willow ended up changing for the better by the end of the novel, and I really liked the idea of that - someone coming into your life and touching you in such a way that it moves you completely. This book itself kind of moved me in this way; I laughed out loud at some parts, and teared up at others. The moral of the story, that everyone has some good in them and need to make the best of the life they have, and that speaks to me a lot. All in all, I enjoyed this book from front to back cover, and I would recommend this to any of my friends, or anyone looking to read a sweet and emotional story. I'm looking forward to searching for other books by Holly Goldberg Sloan, and am glad to give this book five stars.