This book is about a young girl, Willow Chance, who loses her parents to a car accident. It’s is a story about an adopted soon-to-be teen who must figure how to grieve for her parents and at the same time try to find where she belongs. Willow, having been suspected of cheating on a standardized test, was sent to see a counselor, Mr. Dell Duke. After a couple meetings, she eventually meets Mai and Quang-ha. One day, Dell leaves during a session with Quang-ha to adopt a cat. When he arrives back at his trailer, he loses the cat, Cheddar, and the group go on a small quest to find the missing Cheddar. They come back empty handed and decide to make fliers. Then, Dell drives them all home. When the car has arrived at Willow’s house, they find …show more content…
The only people she has ever truly known are dead and gone, and she is alone. Mai realizes what is about to happen and steps in saying that her and Willow go way back. Soon enough, Willow is whisked away to Mai’s garage where Mai, Quang-ha, and their mother, Pattie, live. During this time, she is very depressed and blank. She doesn’t talk or read or do anything she did before the death of her parents. Willow’s loss caused her to become a shell of herself.
However, she did find things to occupy her time and utilize her organizational skills. For example, she made one working computer out of three broken ones, updated Pattie’s system at the nail salon, and rearranged the salon so Pattie could fit another chair. She continued doing so in Dell Duke’s apartment when they moved in. Such as the garden she started at the Gardens of Glenwood. This renovation ended up with the building looking brand new without the worn away paint and, of course, the new garden in the courtyard. Also, Willow and Quang-ha made a mosaic out of the skylight.
Soon enough, it is time for her court date and her future is about to be determined. Her friend Jairo the taxi driver, adopts her with Pattie in a boyfriend-girlfriend partnership. Willow is overjoyed at this conclusion and is finally at ease with