Counting by 7’s-Ariela Cruz

I read Counting by Sevens for my book club choice and I wasn’t to enthused by the book. I did ,however, really liked the main character, “Willow” because I thought she represented a lot of children who feel that they don’t fit in with the “other” students. “Willow” was a fascinating character and I felt that the author did a good job at developing her throughout the book. I liked what the author did by putting a little quote at the beginning of each chapter that correlated with each character. I even wrote one of  them down in my journal, “A leader gets everyone to shoot in the same direction”.

As I was reading the story it really did remind me of when my cousin died and how horrible it was and I felt for Willow and the pain that she was going through. The death of my cousin was almost ten years ago and as I read the book, I was reminded but I was able to read the book and be “okay”. I don’t think I would give this to a child that was in the process of healing but probably after quite some time. I think the author wrote the book to helps students who don’t fit in and to give them some sort of hope.

Compared to other books that I’ve read, I didn’t enjoy it as much. I like books that have different perspectives but this one was a little bland for me and I didm;t like that the mom suddenly had “money” to better her family. The book was a little sad and a bit slow but nonetheless had a great main character.