Counting by 7’s

TW/CW: death of parents

Counting by 7’s is about a young girl, Willow, an adopted child who has very strong special interests in both plants and medical conditions and has almost always been by herself; but she doesn’t mind as long as she has her parents and her garden. When Willow’s parents die in a car crash and she’s taken in by a multiethnic family, Willow wonders if her life will ever be the same again. This was such a great book!  While it’s not explicitly said, Willow is definitely autistic and she was such a great character; my heart broke at what she had to go through.  I loved the part where she flashes back to when she was a child and her teacher is reading Goodnight Moon and Willow says something like “The moon can’t say goodnight. Also, bunnies don’t live in houses and we’re probably going to get salmonella from sleeping on these mats at naptime.” That cracked me up and sounds like something I would’ve said as a kid. I also liked how she went to the library whenever she was overwhelmed. I liked Mai and Quang-Ha’s characters too.  I liked how they all took Willow in even though they didn’t know her very well. Honestly, I liked most of the characters with the exception of Dell Duke; I thought he was an awful person and a terrible counselor (not to mention him “adopting” a cat and then putting the cat back out on the street-how horrific!). I don’t feel like Dell’s character developed that much by the end of the book either.  I mean, Quang-Ha could be annoying too but he actually had his reasons, unlike Dell Duke, who had no business working with children. I’ve seen some people saying that Willow’s autistic traits went away after she lost her family but grief affects everyone differently, autistic or not, and I think the change in Willow’s personality had to do with grief/trauma. Overall, Counting By 7’s is a sweet, funny and heartfelt book that will break your heart and put it back together again.