Author: Holly Goldberg Sloan
Publisher: Penguin Young Reader's Group
# of Pages: 384
Release Date: 29 August 2013
Publisher's Review: 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
Review: I have to admit that I was initially drawn to this book because of the cover. It reminded me immediately of the cover of one of my favorite children's books, Leo Lionni's Swimmy. After reading the book, I'm extremely happy to say that not only was the cover similar, so were the themes, the morals, and the overall good feeling that both books leave me with.
I'm not generally a fan of realistic fiction about orphans. I'm okay with fantasy novels with orphaned characters (fantasy is built around the sad tales of orphans, after all) but orphaned characters who are also realistic make me exceedingly sad. I liked Willow's parents a whole lot even though we only knew them for a few chapters and I was very sad to see them leave the story. Willow is spunky, which grated on me at first since spunky seems to be how many authors treat characters on the spectrum. But there was also a lot of truth to Willow's character and the relationships she creates over the course of the book. I especially liked the way that Sloan described Willow's emotions and allowed her to express them in unique, but realistic ways. Too often characters with Autism or Asperger's Syndrome are depicted as having no emotion which is not always the case.
My one complaint (and the only reason this is a four star instead of a five star book) is that I greatly disliked the guidance counselor. As a former teacher and current youth services professional, I despised him despite the fact that he did eventually redeem himself. He was selfish and lazy, close-minded and generally uninteresting. There is enough bad press out there about teachers, counselors, and coaches without adding to the fray by creating negative literary educators.
But overall, I enjoyed the book greatly. It's a quick read and one I would recommend to any Middle Reader.
Rating: four out of five stars
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