Seven is Willow Chance's number. She observes that many noteworthy things center around the number seven which is why she always recognizes it. It is no coincidence that when her 7th grade year ends and her eighth begins, medical supply truck #807 collides with her adoptive parents' vehicle killing them in a tragic accident. Willow stops counting by 7's. There is no longer joy surrounding the number. Two, however, might become a number with some promise. Willow meets two Vietnamese siblings, Mai and Quang-ha, and because she takes an immediate liking to them, she learns their challenging language, confirming her questionable counselor, Dell's, suspicion that hers is a brilliant mind. Concern for their friend prompts the siblings to convince their struggling mother, Pattie, to temporarily care for Willow too in their tiny, ill-equipped, basement apartment. By the end of the text, we learn that Pattie's frugalness was a not for naught. She was actually saving money made from her small business to purchase the entire apartment building - a goal she achieved.
I enjoy that the book challenges readers to abandon the conventional definition of family. Willow did not know her birth parents, had lost her adoptive parents, but found a home within a family with whom she has no obvious connection. This would be a good read-aloud to further explore the concept of familial bonds, teach cultural respect and appreciation (Willow was willing to learn another language in the name friendship), and emphasize the importance of goal-setting.
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