Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Realistic Fiction)

Willow Chance is a genius. She is different, but unique. She is only eleven years old, but the most intelligent girl in her middle school. After a wrongly accused incident, Willow is sent to have counseling meetings with her school counselor Mr. Dell Duke. She meets her best friend Mai Nguyen and her brother Quang-ha Nguyen through these sessions. Mai is the only friend Willow has at her new middle school. Willow loves to garden and associate many things with the number seven. Seven is her lucky number. Everything Willow does is using the number 7. When times become stressful or things go wrong, Willow counts by 7s. Until tragedy strikes and Willow finds out that her parents have both died in a deadly car crash. Willow is lost and empty. She can no longer count by 7s. The only family she has ever known, is gone. Mai and Quang-ha’s mom Pattie Nguyen takes in Willow as a temporary guardian until social services can find a permanent home for Willow to live. Willow has no idea where social services will place her, and she is very worried. She does not know if California is still the best place for her to live after her parent’s death. Just living in California reminds her too much of her parents. Will Willow be put in a permanent home with new guardians? Will Willow stay in California? How long will Willow stay the Nguyen family? All these questions and more will be answered when you read the book “Counting By 7s”.           

I really enjoyed reading this book. This book was full of twists and turns between the characters and plot of this realistic fiction story. I was very intrigued by some of the characters. The characters had interesting back stories and intriguing facts about their life that often had me wanting to keep reading. I could feel the emotion and heart that the author poured into this book. Each character was different and unique. Every time I read about a specific character, I learned more and more about their personality and appearance. I also loved the bonds and connections that grew between characters as time went on while reading the book. I would have never guessed some of the relationships that grew throughout the story. There were some very shocking bonds between characters which helped the entertainment value of this book. I also was very entertained by the plot of this book. Each event led to the next which helped me have a better understanding of the book overall. What made this book worth reading most of all for me, was the descriptive and figurative language used all throughout this book. Throughout most parts of this book, the author never stated what happened, but instead described it which gave the reader a very descriptive visual of what was going on in the book. This is an important thing that many authors use to keep the reader entertained and not bored while reading the book. I greatly appreciated the author for doing this because this made the wording of the book not boring and very enjoyable to read. Overall, this book taught me a lot about friendship and family that I would recommend to someone as an extraordinary book.

Reviewed by Deanna C., 8th