Counting by 7s Hands DOWN!

As I think about all the books that I have read in the last year, the one that stands out from all the others is Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. Dia and I had talked about it at the end of the last school year.  I remember going to my summer bookclub and talking about the cover. I could describe it: blue-green fish swimming up; red fish swimming down the centre of the book, against the grain. I couldn't remember the title, other than 7s, and a Google search was fruitless (remember, Gail?). I remember reading it on my front porch, in a lawn chair, enjoying the summer sun.

Some who have read it find it hard to believe that someone can have money and keep it hidden away from those you love when it would make life so much easier. To them I say, you didn't grow up in the country. I know (of) several such individuals. This part of the story was believable to me.   And, unlike Ivan, which never quite caught on with my class, pages 176 and 177 of Counting by 7s led to some of the best writing that my students wrote this year.

For me, Counting by 7s is the best book of the 2014 Mighty Smackdown. 

It is the winner even if Dia tells me otherwise.