This summer I read Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan. The main character is a 12-year-old girl named Willow Chance, who lives with her adoptive parents, Roberta and Jimmy Chance. They live in Bakersfield, California. Willow is really smart, and seems to understand a lot. She loves gardening and medical stuff. The other main characters are Jairo Hernandez, Dell Duke, Quang-ha Nguyen, Mai Nguyen, and Pattie Nguyen. Jairo is a taxi driver who thinks Willow is his guardian angel; Dell counsels Quang-ha and Willow; Mai is Quang-ha’s sister, and their mom is Pattie. Pattie’s real name is Dung, but when she found out what it meant in English, she changed it to Pattie.

One day, Willow comes back from school to find that her adoptive parents died in a car accident. Willow is taken to Jamison, which is a foster care organization. It is decided that she will stay at the Nguyen’s house until they find a permanent place for her to live. The Nguyens live in a one room garage behind Pattie’s nail salon, “Happy Polished Nails”, but when the people from Jamison want to do a home visit to make sure the house is a good place for Willow, the Nguyens have to pretend they live in Dell’s apartment, in the “Gardens of Glenwood”. After the home visit, they end up actually living at Dell’s place, while Dell lives down the hall with his new roommate, Sadhu Kumar. This change is good for the Nguyens and Willow because they get proper bedding, a living room, and a TV. The book is mainly about Willow adjusting to a new family after the tragedy of her parents death. Dell Duke says that it’s “kinda comforting knowing that the worst thing in life is already behind you”

I really enjoyed reading this book because firstly, it helped me get a better understanding of people like Willow’s life. Secondly, because I like how the author makes the narrator of the  story switch back and forth between all the characters. Thirdly, because all the characters have really sharp, quirky personalities, and I was able to see what it was like from their perspectives. I think that people who like realistic fiction will like Counting by 7s. I give it four and a half stars.