Age: Accelerated 5th grade-middle school
Tough Issue: Death of mother and father
First line: "We sit together outside the Fosters Freeze at a sea-green, metal picnic table. All four of us."
Special needs: undiagnosed Aspergers

Counting by 7s features Willow, an extremely gifted child dealing with the shocking death of her parents from a car crash. Without any other family members or close friends, Willow is set adrift. Having just met Willow through a mutual counselor and being on the scene when Willow discovers this heartbreaking tragedy, Mai takes responsibility for Willow and brings her to the small garage that Mai lives in with her brother and mother. A gladly received representation of poverty in children's literature that is unfortunately belittled at the end when it turns out, hey, mom has been sitting on gobs of cash for awhile now and buys an apartment complex. The ending is very suitable for the younger audience, it's just unfortunate that it is at the expense of the realities of poverty.

Although there is this flub, the majority of the novel is engaging, intriguing, and grapples with the reality of grief for this one child.