Counting By 7s Book Report

The novel, Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan is about a girl named Willow Chance. Willow is different than most people her age. She is surpassingly smart; in fact, some would call her a genius, and is obsessed with plants and medical conditions. Willow doesn’t have many friends besides Mai Nguyen, who is a few years older than her. Shortly after Willow met Mai, she lost both of her parents in a car accident. Willow was devastated and stopped doing everything she used to love. Gardening, investigating in medical conditions, and even counting by 7s. It wasn’t until near the end of the book when Willow realized she could still be happy if she kept doing what she enjoyed. The novel teaches readers to not let grief prevent them from …show more content…
In the beginning of the novel, Willow had an arduous time fitting in at her elementary school. Her parents moved her to another district for middle school so she could have a fresh start. On her first day, to show who she was, Willow wore her gardening outfit that she had worn since she was young. “‘I have figured out what I'm going to wear for my first day at Sequoia.’ “…” ‘I'll be wearing my gardening outfit.’ Dad must have taken too large of a bite, because it sounded like the fudge doughnut was caught in his throat. He managed to say: ‘Are you sure about that?’ Of course I was sure” (Sloan 27). While this is a good point because Willow did not try to fit in with everyone else, it fails to account for how she had to find herself again after the accident. When in the apartment, Quang-Ha saved an avocado pit, but throws it away in the trash when his sister, Mai, teases him about it. Willow, who used to be ecstatic about plants, takes the pit out, but tries to force herself not to think about gardening. “I have not thought about cultivation since Before. It's too painful. But when no one is looking, I rescue the avocado pit from the trash. I almost cry just looking at the thing. Suddenly, I can't help myself. I start to think about soil composition. I try to push it out of my mind” (Sloan 227). Some people might interpret this to mean that Willow needed to stay true to herself since she evidently couldn’t help but think about growing plants. But clearly, this quote was showing that Willow’s grief was preventing her from doing what she loved because as narrator, she talked about how she tried to push away her thoughts of plants and gardening because they were too