#tbt: Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Image: Penguin Random House 

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. 384 p. Dial Books for Young Readers/ Penguin Young Readers, August, 2013. 

Today was the first day back from break for TMS students. I dropped my laptop, swipe card and keys off early this morning and went to yoga! Now that I'm retired, I hope to have the time and energy to do what I love best! Talking/ blogging about books for young people! Honestly, my job evolved from librarian to LA teacher as my flexible schedule gave way to a packed schedule, leaving little time for my super-power, Reader's Advisory and little energy after grading, to keep up with my reading.

I will start today with #tbt, which features Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. Twelve-year-old Willow Chase is rather matter-of-fact about the fact that she doesn't fit in, like anywhere, except in her adoptive home with her "oh so white" adoptive parents. She's a genius with rather specific interests. This is a rather sad, but uplifting story told from multiple perspectives. Willow's first-person narration shifts to third person narration from those around her whose lives she unknowingly transforms.

Counting by 7s was published in 2013 and was named to both School Library Journal and Booklist "Best Books List." in 2015 it received The Hans Christian Andersen Award for Best Novel for Children 12+. The book has been a TMS favorite consistently over the years. Happy reading!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Unabridged downloadable audiobook, ~10 hours. Read by Robbie Daymond. Listening Library, 2017. 9781524734565. (Review of downloadable audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This first-person narrative features Sal, who finds himself in detention on the very first day of senior year when he decides to use his fists instead of his words to confront a bully. This fast and furious anger puzzles Sal who admits that his life has been pretty great. Though his mother died when he was three, her best friend, Vicente adopted him and Sal, while white, grew up surrounded by a loving Mexican American extended family. He ponders his birth father and begins to wonder if he inherited this new tendency toward violence from him. 

He's also lucky with friends, especially his best friend, Samantha. The two are thick as thieves and Vicente acts as a surrogate father to her because her relationship with her mostly absent mother is fraught. He also makes a new friend in Fito, a gay classmate who is working hard to both earn money and college acceptance. 

The writing is lovely in this character driven story. It's leisurely pace will require a patient teen reader but the reward is in the warmth of Sal's adoptive family and his friendships. The performance by Robbie Raymond is measured and introspective.

Teen Tuesday (audiobook review): Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway. Unabridged audiobook on 1 MP3-CD. Read by Julia Whelan. HarperAudio, December, 2017. 9781538518755. (Review from purchased audiobook.)

Teen Tuesday features Far from the Tree by Robin Benway. Benway won the National Book Award for Literature for Young People for this book last November. The story is told from three perspectives - Grace, a sixteen-year-old girl who, having given up her own daughter for adoption decides that she wants to learn more about her own birth mother who gave her up at birth. She learns that she has two half-siblings, a sister, Maya, who was also adopted at birth and an older brother, Joaquin, who was surrendered to foster care, was never adopted and is about to age out of the system. This multi-layered, (make no assumptions) deeply emotional book (there will be tears) is best read by students in grade 8 and up. 

I enjoyed this one but I had to get over the narrator's annoying voices for any male character. While she was rather soft-spoken, the whole narration was a bit dead-pan and dry.