Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Willow Chance is very smart.  She's fascinated by nature and medical conditions and finds it very hard to get along or make connections with other people.  That's been OK, because she has her parents, until suddenly, she doesn't anymore.  Now Willow is completely alone in a confusing world with no friends or family to help her.  Except that maybe there are.

This was a very interesting book.  The tragedy that leaves Willows parent's dead happens early on in the book, and we know it's coming from the very first page.  The story wasn't really about the tragedy, however.  What this book was really about was how people touch other people's lives in unknown and surprising ways, and that they small things that people do can have a great impact on other people.

Although it never specifically says, Willow seems to be on the autism spectrum. She has difficulty communicating, she doesn't connect with people, and she has certain fixations, like nature and medical conditions and the number 7.

Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz

Colin Fischer has Asperger's syndrome.  He loves math and logic and does not like people touching him and has a hard time reading people's facial expressions.  Colin has just started high school, and is without an aid for the first time.  The very first day, Colin gets his head put in a toilet by Wayne Connelly, and then Wayne Connelly gets expelled for bringing a gun to school.  Only Colin knows that the gun wasn't Wayne's.  Colin uses his powers of perception to work out what actually went on in the school cafeteria, turning him into Wayne Connelly's most unlikely ally.

I really liked how Colin's mother, father, and brother were part of the story.  We actually get to see some interaction between parents and with their children that is positive.  The parent's aren't dysfunctional or abusive.  When parents show up in YA and middle grade stuff, they are very often dysfunctional or dying, so this was lovely.  I quite liked Colin's parents, and the way they handled tricky situations in a realistic and caring way.

Colin's little brother was a typical annoying littler brother, with the added frustration of having a brother who took up a lot of attention.  Danny had some understandable frustration toward Colin, who he felt like got away with things because of his Asperger's.

Colin grows as a person over the course of the book.  He is pushed outside his comfort zone in his determination to make what happened in the cafeteria make logical sense.  Sometimes Colin was OK making changes to his regular routine, and sometimes it did not go very well.  I was glad they showed this, because people who are on the Autism spectrum can't always do something just because they want to or someone else wants them too.  Sometimes it just isn't possible, and pushing them will not help.

I didn't love the basketball scene.  It was like suddenly savant syndrome came out of nowhere.  Colin is forced to participate in gym, and is terrible at basketball due to his poor hand-eye coordination.  But the gym coach has him think about it in a mathematical way, and Colin closes his eyes, calculates, says, "Got it" and starts shooting basket after perfect basket.  I would have preferred Colin to stay a regular kid.  He doesn't really have any special abilities, it's just that he can only see things in a carefully laid out, logical way that allows him to figure out what really happened.

I think this is going to be a series.  There is a strange student at Colin's school, who Colin doesn't quite understand but thinks he's really behind everything, but it doesn't go anywhere.  It seems like there will be more books about Colin solving mysteries to come. 

Colin Fischer comes out November 1, 2012.

Courtship & Curses by Marissa Doyle

 It's 1815, and Sophie should be excited about her coming out to London society, but illness has made her walk with a limp, and she knows the only match she'll make for herself is one that's after her money.  Finding a husband loses its importance when Sophie realizes someone is using magic to attack the members of the War Cabinet, including her father!  It's up to Sophie to figure out who's behind it, all the while trying to keep her own magic a secret.

A delightful romp!  I thoroughly enjoyed this.  It was light and quick and pleasure to read.  Sophie and her friend Parthenope (name of a siren in Greek mythology, I knew it had to come from somewhere) were absolutely delightful, especially Parthenope who acted completely out of character for a English lady in 1815, what with her mouthing off and punching a rakish young man in the nose (he deserved it).  Parthenope was completely over the top, yet a very sweet, caring character and I loved reading her.

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Moose's father works as a guard for Alcatraz prison, and the whole family has just moved to the island to live so they can save some money and Moose's sister, Natalie, can go to a special school.  Moose is NOT happy about this.  Now he's separated from all his friends for another one of his mom's crazy plans that probably won't even help Natalie at all.  Moose has to deal with the prison warden's daughter's schemes to meet Al Capone, babysitting his older sister, making new friends, and just trying to be a regular kid.

This was pretty great.  There are so many things to love about.  The humor, the family dynamics, the look at life in the 30s.  Let's talk about the family first.

Natalie probably had a form of Autism, but in 1935, no one knows about Autism yet.  Moose's mother is desperate to help her and has tried everything possible.  From different kind of doctors to voodoo dolls.  That might sound kind of extreme, but the alternative was putting your child in an asylum, which has also been suggested, and has refused to do it.  Moose's mother will try anything she can possibly can, no matter how far fetched it might sound.

Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings

Natalie O'Reilly was born without irises, making her susceptible to juvenile glaucoma, which destroyed her vision. For years now, Natalie's eyesight has slowly worsened, first losing her ability to see color, and then her field of vision shrinking to a small circle. She is now a high school sophomore, and her doctor has told her to prepare herself to lose her sight completely. Natalie is sent to a school for the blind in Baltimore, to learn Braille and how to use a cane, among other things. Natalie resists; she doesn't need these skills, she's not blind. But Natalie's resistance to learning how to be independent as a person without vision is only making her more and more scared of the world.