Welcome to the Counting by 7s blog tour! Willow Chance is a 12-year-old genius who finds it comforting to count by 7s. She’s never really connected with anyone other than her parents, but when they both die in a car crash, she’s left completely alone. We asked author Holly Goldberg Sloan to share her 7s – from the seven favorite books to seven things her fridge can’t do without, follow Holly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as she counts her own 7s.
Holly’s Guest Post:
7 things my kids said that I'll never forget
1. When my oldest son was just a toddler I took him along with me to work. This meant that he was around adults a lot. He was a quiet kid and followed instructions. Right before we would enter the office I would turn to him and say "Remember to behave." One day we were leaving and I asked how he was doing. He answered: "I'm being Hav, but I don't know who he is."
2. My second son loves words. He made up his own when he was little. When he was five he said that I should write the people who made the dictionary and tell them that the word should be 'earthshake' not 'earthquake'.
3. The same son requested a 'milkquake' once the people who wrote the dictionary didn't honor his request for earthshake.
4. I was standing with my firstborn in the market and a very old woman was in front of us in line. My young son blurted out "What happens when you die?" I said we would discuss this later. He then pointed at the woman and said "What happens when she dies?"
5. When my two sons were 4 years old and 2 years old we were on a flight from Los Angeles to New York. The boys were sitting next to me looking at a picture book. I shut my eyes for what seemed like two seconds and when I opened them, the boys were out of their seats and heading down the aisle. I jumped up and went after them, saying "What do you think you're doing?" My oldest son answered "We're going outside to play on the wing."
6. The first time my son Max saw fireworks he was only three years old. I asked him if he liked what he had seen. He said "It is very loud when clouds explode."
7. We live in Southern California and it doesn't rain much. One winter we had a heavy rainstorm and I put a coat on my young son and we walked out to the sidewalk to watch the water rush down the street. My son squatted down to look at the things streaming by in the water. He then got to his feet and said "If you are a worm, it's a good day to travel."
1. When my oldest son was just a toddler I took him along with me to work. This meant that he was around adults a lot. He was a quiet kid and followed instructions. Right before we would enter the office I would turn to him and say "Remember to behave." One day we were leaving and I asked how he was doing. He answered: "I'm being Hav, but I don't know who he is."
2. My second son loves words. He made up his own when he was little. When he was five he said that I should write the people who made the dictionary and tell them that the word should be 'earthshake' not 'earthquake'.
3. The same son requested a 'milkquake' once the people who wrote the dictionary didn't honor his request for earthshake.
4. I was standing with my firstborn in the market and a very old woman was in front of us in line. My young son blurted out "What happens when you die?" I said we would discuss this later. He then pointed at the woman and said "What happens when she dies?"
5. When my two sons were 4 years old and 2 years old we were on a flight from Los Angeles to New York. The boys were sitting next to me looking at a picture book. I shut my eyes for what seemed like two seconds and when I opened them, the boys were out of their seats and heading down the aisle. I jumped up and went after them, saying "What do you think you're doing?" My oldest son answered "We're going outside to play on the wing."
6. The first time my son Max saw fireworks he was only three years old. I asked him if he liked what he had seen. He said "It is very loud when clouds explode."
7. We live in Southern California and it doesn't rain much. One winter we had a heavy rainstorm and I put a coat on my young son and we walked out to the sidewalk to watch the water rush down the street. My son squatted down to look at the things streaming by in the water. He then got to his feet and said "If you are a worm, it's a good day to travel."
Counting by 7s Synopsis:
In the tradition of Out of My Mind, Wonder, and Mockingbird, this is an intensely moving middle grade novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family.
Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn't kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.
Suddenly Willow's world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.
About Holly Goldberg Sloan:
Holly Goldberg Sloan was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and spent her childhood living in California, the Netherlands, Istanbul, Washington, DC, and Oregon. She has written and directed a number of successful family feature films. The mother of two sons, Holly lives with her husband in Santa Monica, California. I'll Be There was her debut novel (she earlier had written a middle reader book called Keeper).
Follow along the Counting by 7s blog tour to read all seven of Holly’s posts.
9/2: Live To Read
9/9: Making the Grade
9/11: There's A Book
9/13: Abby the Librarian
9/16: The Book Muncher
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