Counting by 7s

Through Willow, kids will learn a number of facts about gardening, plants, and flowers, medicine and skin diseases, and other random things, like lemurs and the Native American Cahuilla tribe that once thrived near Bakersfield, CA. They'll also learn a bit about the foster care system. Willow teaches herself Vietnamese and uses and translates a few phrases. She uses the library as a refuge, and books play a prominent role in her life. 

Counting by 7s offers an array of positive, diverse characters -- a white counselor who's transformed by really caring about three of his students, a Vietnamese nail salon owner who takes a total stranger under her wing, a Mexican taxi driver who's re-inspired to follow his dream of going back to school, two Vietnamese-American teen siblings -- a troublemaking boy who lets down his guard, makes new friends and re-engages, and a fashion-loving girl who leads Willow out of darkness with her warm and easy friendship -- and Willow herself, a "person of color" who does lie to her parents and defy authority on occasion. But mainly she uses her extreme intelligence to help people (like telling the cab driver he should have a dangerous-looking mole on his neck checked out) and make her corner of the world a better place, even at a time of great personal suffering. Even minor characters, like the nursery man who pitches in to help Willow grow a community garden, are inspired by her can-do attitude and positive energy.

Two adult characters fall in love, but the reader only gets hints of the realtionship developing in that direction until it's a done deal. A man and a teen boy watch TV together and comment on girls onscreen being "hot" and "super-hot." It's mentioned that many Vietnamese women had babies with African-American soldiers during the Vietnam War. There's a brief mention of infertility and miscarriage. 

Diet Pepsi (decried by Willow as "not healthy"), Fosters Freeze, Teen Vogue, Discovery Channel, Costco, Ford, the Salvation Army, Home Depot, Band-Aid -- all used for realistic scene-setting.