Reviews of Counting by 7s

Charming

“Sloan has masterfully created a graceful, meaningful tale featuring a cast of charming, well-rounded characters, who learn lessons…about resourcefulness, community, and true resilience in the face of loss.”

—BOOKLIST, STARRED Review

Healing

“Willow narrates her own chapters, and her clinical, scientific, pared-down observation of her own grief and healing makes events more poignant, not less.”

— The Horn Book, STARRED Review

Love

“­If you know by the end of chapter one that the narrator’s parents have been killed, do you keep on reading?

If the story’s skillfully written and the characters cleverly conceived, it’s hard to stop.

Willow Chance – a perfect name for the highly-gifted narrator – begins chapter two of Counting by 7s by going back to the beginning, in a new school where she knows no one. Acknowledging both her strangeness and that, despite being a thinker, she’s ‘never the teacher’s pet. Ever,’ Willow seems untroubled by being outside the mainstream. Instead, she teaches herself Vietnamese, researches rare diseases, and tends her garden. Give credit to her adoptive parents, who ‘Really Truly L-O-V-E’ Willow. Or to her intriguing personality. This is one smart, resourceful 12-year-old.

Alternating chapters are told in the voices of her school counselor and an older girl whose Vietnamese mom runs a nail salon. With an array of distinctly fascinating characters parading in and out of the book, I truly hated to turn the last page. Yes, you can see the ending coming, especially if you are an adult reader. And things do tie up nicely. But that doesn’t matter. The writing is remarkably funny for what could have been a sad tale of growing up surrounded by people who have no reason to care about you. In the capable hands of this writer, readers will adore Willow Chance and wish her a good and happy and mostly normal future with her new family.”

— Christian Science Monitor

Inspirational

“­­­…extraordinary and even inspirational.”

— Publisher’s Weekly Review

Hope

“­­­Readers can only hope for more characters like Willow Chase [sic] to come from this author.”

— Jennifer M. Brown, Shelf Awareness

Success

“­­­­­­A story of renewal and belonging that succeeds…”

— Kirkus

Recommended

“­­­­­­­­­I highly recommend this book, especially if you know kids of either gender who want to read something without magic, where people solve problems the hard way, and win answers that they deserve.”

— Kate – Sassafrakas Sass + Pop Culture

Deep

“­­­­­­…technically a YA novel, but deep and really moving.”

— Jeannine Stanley, NoBo Magazine

Multicultural

“­­­­Diversity is a constant, important topic in the children’s book world. Do today’s titles adequately reflect the variety of our nation? Has publishing moved beyond the multicultural trend of the 1990s to feature characters whose race, culture, religion and cognitive or physical ability may be incidental to, rather than the sole focus of, the story? Happily, we can add Holly Goldberg Sloan’s tender, nuanced Counting by 7s to the contemporary novels that seek to embrace the broader range of the American experience. Adopted at birth by a loving white couple, 12-year-old Willow Chance is a “person of color” (her term) and a genius obsessed with medical conditions and plants. At her California middle school, Willow’s oddities soon land her in weekly sessions with the district’s incompetent counselor. There she befriends a scrappy teen named Mai Nguyen. When Willow’s parents suddenly die, Mai persuades her mother, Pattie, to take in the girl on a temporary basis. Thanks to her history as a bullied mixed-race kid in Vietnam, Pattie bonds fiercely with the grieving child. This lovely, wise tale is not just about loss but about survival, connection and kindness, and its narrative style underscores the theme of community. Sloan skillfully intersperses chapters in Willow’s quirky ‘old soul’ voice with those in the third person from the perspective of key secondary characters. The effect mirrors the gardens that Willow loves to create, in which each plant is a valued presence in ‘the larger whole that surrounds us all.'”

— Mary Quattlebaum, The Washington Post

Strange

“­­­­Twelve-year-old Willow Chance doesn’t know how to deal with kids her age, despite hours of reading about teenagers. Preferring to work in her garden, diagnose medical problems, and count by 7s, Willow is possibly autistic, certainly strange. After a tragedy leaves her an orphan, she forms a new family out of a group of other ‘misfits.’ The result is a book that is complicated, offbeat, and very touching — just like Willow herself.”

— Entertainment Weekly

Smart

“­­­­A novel set in Bakersfield is getting a lot of buzz lately.

We’re talking movie buzz. That may get some people to fire up the Kindle, or what not, and buy Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan.

But after the first few pages, it’s the characters that will grab you and hold you through the final sentence.

OK, so this isn’t my typical column fare, but I wanted to draw attention to the novel for its central theme: No matter how glaring our differences are on the outside, scratch the surface and we’re pretty similar inside. Considering the horrors we humans inflict one each other on a daily basis, I think that’s a nugget worth keeping close to the heart. Sloan’s main character, Willow Chance, is an oddball. So odd, she doesn’t have any friends, despite being perfectly nice and quite determined to find one. But she’s almost too smart for her own good. A genius, in fact. That makes people uncomfortable. And for all her smarts Willow doesn’t really know how to navigate complex human relationships. Willow is accused of cheating on a test, which sets a number of events in motion that are funny, sad, tragic and, ultimately hopeful. I met Sloan at Russo’s Bookstore back in December before it closed and she agreed to a Q&A. In keeping with the title of the book, I asked her seven questions.

Q1: Why is the book set in Bakersfield?
A: I think that Bakersfield, like Willow, is both overlooked and misunderstood. It’s not a flashy place. But it’s got soul. At least I think so. Bakersfield is a diverse community. There is more than meets the eye. I spent a few days in Bakersfield doing a commercial once and I was struck by the people. The place. The climate. The sky. I liked it. I thought it had stories and secrets and lots of hopes and dreams.

Q2: Each of the characters has his or her own story of loss, some very tragic. What do you hope readers learn from those stories?
A: I think that how we handle loss defines us. It’s the old saying about not knowing someone until you are in a foxhole. Watching how someone handles success or good news doesn’t tell you as much about a person’s character as seeing what happens when things fall apart. Everyone experiences loss. With young people that can mean losing a grandparent or a beloved pet. My characters face extreme loss. There is nothing more ground-shifting than for a child to lose a parent.

Q3: OK, the school counselor, Dell — how does his incompetence add to the story?
A: Dell is extreme. But all kinds of inept people somehow make their way into the system. I have nothing but respect for school counselors and I do not want to imply that they aren’t doing their jobs. But Dell isn’t. He wouldn’t do his job if he worked in an ice cream store. He’s not a motivated person. He’s had a lot of disappointment and not a lot of encouragement. He’s stuck.

Q4: Considering Willow has such a loving, stable family, why was it important to the story for her to have been adopted?
A: I wanted to make her even more alone in the world. I also wanted her to be very different from her parents. I wanted her special abilities to be something she didn’t share with them. They love her with all their hearts, but I wanted them to be from another world. Steve Jobs was adopted. He had loving parents who found ways to encourage him to follow his interests. Not everyone is that fortunate.

Q5: There has been some criticism of the ending in regards to money (trying not to give away too much here). Can you address why you ended it the way you did?
A: The end is based on reality. The situation, as described in the book, happened to someone and I know this because my husband served on a jury and the basis of the civil action had to do with something that occurred because of what happened to the person in a situation like Pattie. If you haven’t read the book, that sounds completely incomprehensible. Sorry. In the edition of the book published in the United Kingdom I answer questions at the end of the book in a short interview and I explain where the idea comes from and the fact of the matter is that someone in Pattie’s situation pulled this off.

Q6: There are so many ways that kids (and adults) can be labeled as outcasts or misfits, from their income status to the look of their nose. Why make Willow’s high-octane brainpower the thing that sets her apart?
A: We tend to be a culture that easily recognizes and separates children when they have athletic talent. I wrote the movie “Angels in the Outfield,” so I think it’s clear that I love sports. But I think that, often, having intellectual talent isn’t celebrated in the way throwing a fastball is. My kids went to a school for gifted children (Mirman in Los Angeles). I “borrowed” a lot from their experience there.

Q7: The main character’s name is not exactly common, Willow Chance. Any significance? A: Yes. Will or Chance?
What is determinative in life? Or are both things at play? I’m hoping to encourage discussion about community. Responsibility. Differences. I’m trying to ask how we move on from loss. I’m looking at how we are all so different, and yet all so similar. (I couldn’t resist and sneaked in one extra question:)

Q8: What’s next for Counting By 7s?
A movie deal? Filmed in Bakersfield perhaps? A: The book has been optioned for a movie. It would ABSOLUTELY be filmed in Bakersfield. And we are in talks right now with an established (known) actor for one of the parts. So stay tuned.”

— Lois Henry, The Bakersfield Californian

Intelligent

“­­­­Publishers are releasing their spring titles, and I’m going through the annual task of putting aside the fall books that didn’t make it into this column in order to focus on the new list. In the process, however, I started reading a book I’d brought home for review months ago — one that got lost in the shuffle, but which turns out to be really good. So good that when I finished it, I promptly went back to Page 1 and read the whole thing a second time.

Counting by 7s revolves around 12-year-old Willow Chance, a self-described person of colour with adoptive parents “so white, they are almost blue. They don’t have circulation problems; they just don’t have much pigment.” Roberta and Jimmy Chance tried for seven years to get pregnant, with no luck. When Willow entered their lives, the three of them formed a solid family — the child an exceptionally intelligent and curious one, the parents supportive and loving. Willow is obsessed with the number seven, has an interest in plants and in all things medical. They’re not the interests of the average 12-year-old, so it’s not surprising that Willow is something of an outsider.

At school, a perfect score on a standardized test draws raised eyebrows from school administration officials who suspect her of having cheated. As a result, she ends up in the office of school counsellor Dell Duke, a misfit and loser of gargantuan proportions who landed his job largely by accident but whose life, having crossed paths with Willow’s, now becomes inextricably entwined with hers. It is at Duke’s office that Willow meets Mai, a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl who becomes her best friend, and Quang-ha, Mai’s 15-year-old brother, who is on a path to ruination but, like Duke, is saved by getting to know Willow.

However, the real plot unfolds when Roberta and Jimmy are killed in a traffic accident and Willow, in the blink of an eye, is set adrift. What follows is an affecting tale about the impact any of us can have on another person’s life; author Holly Goldberg Sloan, tempering the plot with humour to offset the heartbreaking bits, not only creates vivid and believable characters but gives Willow a wry, insightful voice that stays with the reader long after the book is finished. ‘For someone grieving, moving forward is the challenge,’ Willow, as narrator, tells us. ‘Because after extreme loss, you want to go back.’

Fortunately, Mai convinces her mother, Pattie Nguyen, who runs a nail salon, to help Willow move forward. Together with Duke, the truculent Quang-ha and a remarkable taxi driver named Jairo Hernandez, they create a new family for Willow and, in the process, a new life for themselves.”

— Bernie Goedhart, The Montreal Gazette

Awards & Accolades

E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book 2014
Horn Book STARRED Review
BookList STARRED Review
Voya STARRED Review
School Library Journal STARRED Review
Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) 2014 Finalist Best Book for Middle Grade
American Library Association Best Fiction for Young Adults 2014
American Library Association Notable Children’s Books – Older Readers 2014 A New York Times Bestseller 2014 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts (from Children’s Literary Assembly)
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2014
BuzzFeed #7 on the 20 Best Children’s Books of ­the Year
A National Public Radio Best Book of the Year
AMAZON Best Middle Reader novel published in 2013
Teacher’s Choice Book AWARD 2014
Children’s Literacy Council of Southern California
Excellence in Juvenile Fiction 2014 AWARD #4 on the INDIE BOUND 2013 Fall Book Pick Top 10 Anticipated Releases.
Nominated in 15 States for:
TEXAS Blue Bonnet Award Master List 2014-2015
NEW HAMPSHIRE Great Stone Face Book Award 2014-2015
KENTUCKY Bluegrass Award 2014-2015
CONNECTICUT Nutmeg Award 2014-2015
GEORGIA Children’s Book Award 2014-2015
OHIO Buckeye Children’s Book Award 2014-2015
VERMONT Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award 2014-2015
MAINE Student Book Award 2014-2015
MISSISSIPPI Magnolia Book Award 2015
MARYLAND Black-Eyed Susan Award 2014-2015
RHODE ISLAND Teen Book Award 2015
NORTH CAROLINA School Library Media Association 2014-2015 Young Adult Book Award
PENNSYLVANIA Keystone To Reading Book Award 2014-2015
COLORADO Children’s Book Award’s, Junior Book 2015
WYOMING Library Association’s Soaring Eagle Award 2015
BUZZ BOOK of 2013 by the Book Expo America.
4 other books in my category were also chosen. I want to mention them: A Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson, HarperCollins The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward, Razorbill Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith, Quirk The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick, Algonquin Books for Young Readers
BLUE RIBBON middle reader Honoree at the American Library Association’s 2013 Summer conference in Chicago. The other Penguin BLUE RIBBON book is Julie Berry’s All The Truth That’s In Me. I want to mention this because I really love this book.