Sometimes, when I read a book, I stumble upon a line so powerful that I take a picture of it. I often end up texting the photo to my dear friend Sally, here at Books, Ink. Sometimes, like today, I find almost a whole page that needs to be photographed and texted so we can discuss the amazingness of the words on that page.
Recently, a friend texted me a picture of the book "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan and said, "you need to read this." Yes, there is a lot of texting about books in my life! I immediately requested it from the library, and as soon as it was available, I started reading. I couldn't put the book down. Seriously. I read late into the night. My eyes betrayed me and closed before I could finish, so I grabbed my copy first thing the next morning and continued reading. It was just as good as she said it was.
In "Counting by 7s," we meet 12-year-old Willow Chance. Willow is happiest tending to her garden. She's brilliant and knows everything one could possibly know about caring for plants, and her garden reflects that knowledge in its lush beauty. She takes a standardized test at school and scores a perfect score. The principal immediately thinks she cheated as no one in the state scored a perfect score and sends her to meet with the school counselor. Here is where her life begins to take many unexpected turns. Although she previously struggled to make friends, she meets two people who become family to her later in the book. In a wild turn of events, her counselor drives her home from school, and they arrive to meet the police who are there because there has been a horrible accident. Suddenly the life Willow knew is turned upside down.
I wish I could tell you more about the story, but really, you have to read it. I love the way the story is told from several different characters. While parts of the story are so sad, we see how one little girl can change lives and how something good can come out of something bad. We learn about family and that there are good people in the world who care when it feels like no one does.
While I loved everything about this book, the page pictured was my absolute favorite. I love the reference to E.L. Konigsburg's "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." I love the comfort of the library. Most of all, I love that while we hopefully can't identify with the tragedy in the book, the story is written in such a way that makes it easy for readers to identify with Willow.
C