Quotable, inspiring

I almost gave up on Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan.  It starts with a jolt, then backtracks, and I almost couldn't continue.  I was prepared for depressing, quirky, schlock.  I am so glad I hung in just a little longer.  It was moving, quirky, and engaging.  At the same time, it really made me think.  

In it, Willow Chance begins a new Junior High School.  Willow is not a traditional teenager.  Obsessed with plants, reading, and calmed by counting by 7's, she is a genius who has not learned to connect with people her age.  She is accused of cheating on her first standardized test because she finishes in record time and gets the only recorded 100%.  This sends her to Dell, a counselor for students he has labeled the FOUR GROUPS OF THE STRANGE: Misfits, Oddballs, Lone Wolves and Weirdos.  He is an adult who barely copes with the world himself.  Willow defies his system.  Leading him to this moment: "Dell found himself wondering if all kinds of assumptions were questionable."  Willow makes her first age-appropriate connection while waiting to see Dell, a Vietnamese girl waiting for her brother's session to finish.  Willow even learns to speak Vietnamese to further connect with her new friend, Mai.

A terrible tragedy strikes Willow, and sends her whole life into chaos.  She must overcome her own despair and just survive, making connections that not only change her life, but also the lives of those who come to her rescue: Dell, Mai's family, a Hispanic cab driver, and a cat named Cheddar.  During the worst of her days, she comes to realize that, "All reality.....is a blender where hopes an dreams are mixed with fear and despair.  Only in cartoons and fairy tails and greeting cards do endings have glitter."

The sadness is balenced with the right amount of hope to raise this to a level of inspiring.