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Sloan, Holly Goldberg. Counting By 7s. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013.

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Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan | Scholastic

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After losing her adoptive parents in a car accident, twelve-year-old genius Willow slowly forges new social relationships and creates a surrogate family for her

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https://getfreestories.weebly.com/uploads/7/9/0/2/79020522/counting_by_7s_-_holly_goldberg_sloan.pdf

Note: All page numbers are recorded according to the PDF so they are not reflective of the physical book. The chapter numbers are, however, accurate.

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When researching, I found Counting by 7s through multiple sites, many of which cited the book as popular and award-winning. I was also interested by the book's description: a 12-year-old genius navigates middle school while experiencing the death of her adoptive parents. Furthermore, I enjoyed the lyrically writing style employed by the author.

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The book begins at an ice-cream shop, where the main character Willow Chance eats with three others. Willow explains, "I don’t tell anyone that what makes [the chocolate layer] work is wax. Or to be more accurate: edible, foodgrade paraffin wax" (Page 9, Chapter 1). This sets the stage for the book in that the reader can expect the main character to point out such "irrelevant" facts.

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So when the teacher specifically said: “Willow, how does this book make you feel?”
I had to tell the truth:
“It makes me feel really bad. The moon can’t hear someone say good night; it is two hundred thirty-five thousand miles away. And bunnies don’t live in houses. Also, I don’t think that the artwork is very interesting.” (Page 17, Chapter 2).
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The dialogue is important because it reveals how Willow was able to be a high-level thinker despite only being in kindergarten. It demonstrates that Willow was able to open up about her feelings and explains why Willow was later left alone by the other kids.

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“Tell me one thing that I can do to make your life better.”
I’m surprised when a voice comes out of my body.
“You could get me a packet of sunflower seeds.”
Dell leans forward.
“For eating?”
I answer:
“For planting.”
(Page 133, Chapter 40)
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This excerpt depicts how Willow is passionate about gardening and how she uses it to deal with grief. The sunflower seeds are important and will lead to a big project that Willow takes on.

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I hear him explain:
“It’s all going to be planted. You’ll see. We are right in the middle of the project.”
I catch sight of Otto Sayas and he’s still scowling.
He barks: “Nothing in the world will grow there.”
Then the magical part happens, because Dell sort of puffs up and says:
“You just wait and see.”
(Page 163, Chapter 48)
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This part exhibits that Dell now has more self-pride and self-confidence. Earlier, Dell was a typical slacker who thought nothing of the future. Now he has been able to take responsibility for something and be optimistic.

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Willow meets Mr. Dell Duke:
"...she put in a formal request for me to see a behavioral counselor at the district main offices. That’s where the real problem kids were sent. My counselor’s name was Dell Duke. " (Page 26, Chapter 4)
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Willow's meeting with Mr. Dell Duke is important because it led to her meeting with every other character in the book. Excluding that, this event was important because Mr. Dell Duke was Willow's first companion in middle school. Willow was able to feel a sense of belonging. She said, "I believed he somehow needed me. I liked the feeling" (Page 35, Chapter 6). This event helped Willow gain a friend and make new ones.

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Willow is allowed to stay with Mai's family:
"Decisions are made. I will officially be turned over to my old family friends: the Nguyens" (Page 94, Chapter 28).
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For starters, this ends the rollercoaster of events through which Willow ran away from the Children's Center. She has now temporarily been given a home of slightly familiar people who will later become her family. It marks the start of Willow adapting to her new family.

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"For the briefest of moments I imagine clearing away the rock and digging a pond to grow water lilies and red bog flowers. I would plant timber bamboo along the north side to jut up into the open space and shade the roof. I suddenly see vines and lush plants clumped together, and the air is pungent with the smell of life" (Page 152, Chapter 46).
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This imagination that Willow has becomes the basis of her garden project. This inspires her to speak with her family and seek bank approval. She will continue to gather materials, start working, ask for help, and eventually make this vision a reality.

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"The ability to keep your mouth shut is usually a sign of intelligence. Introspection requires you to think and analyze" (Page 77, Chapter 22).
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I think that introspection means the ability to observe oneself. From this quote, I can see that "The ability to keep your mouth shut" refers to introspection.
The word is made from the prefix 'intro' and root word 'spect.' 'Intro' means 'inwards' and 'spect' means 'see' so I deduced it had something to do with seeing inwards.

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One major theme of this book is working together. From the beginning Willow was able to receive support from Mia's family. She was also able to help the taxi driver, Jairo, by telling him to go to the doctor and convincing him to go to college.
Looking at the garden project, it was only successful because all of the characters contributed. Dell was able to provide the permission needed along the project. Quang-Ha was able to bring artistic skills and out-of-the-box thinking. Mia was able to help with finding the plants and doing the work. Jairo was able to help by cleaning windows and transporting materials. Henry was able to provide most of the plants and expertise. The list goes on!
These characters came from rough spots and by working together they were able to achieve many things.

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"I hit my head on the elephant-shaped coffee table...  the sharp edge of the pachyderm’s trunk sliced right into my glabella" (Page 81, Chapter 23).
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I think that pachyderm refers to the biological group of animals that includes elephants. Because it states that she hit her head on an elephant table and sliced against a trunk, the trunk is obviously part of the elephant table. This means that pachyderm is a replacement for elephant. Since I have never heard that pachyderm is a direct synonym for elephant, I believe that it must refer to the biological group.

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"There have been cases of stress-induced cardiomyopathy, which also is known as broken heart syndrome." (Page 196, Chapter 58).
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I think that cardiomyopathy means broken heart syndrome. The context clues give the direct definition later in the sentence.
I was also able to get this definition because 'cardio' means 'heart' and 'pathy' means 'suffering/disease.'

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"They bring us each a bowl of vanilla ice cream with sprinkles on top. The girl next to me starts to cry when she sees the sprinkles... She has a horrible burn on her arm and she picks at it as she weeps. The burn is the size of a cherry. I get a bad feeling in my stomach thinking that someone did this to her" (Pages 193 & 194, Chapter 57).
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This creates an uneasy tone. The author uses words like 'sprinkles', 'horrible', 'weeps', and 'bad feeling'. The reader would pick up on the idea something bad happened. From Willow's perspective, we would feel troubled or uneasy.

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The Gardens of Glenwood is where Willow lives temporarily. Despite being named 'Gardens of Glenwood', "...there are nothing but weeds and the dusty pumice rock in the central open area" (Page 130, Chapter 39). This would most closely be comic irony because it is meant to be amusing.
It is important because Willow and her friends will later transform the place so it is truly a garden.

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"But that world was blown up in an intersection" (Page 95, Chapter 28).
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This is symbolism; an intersection represents what caused Willow's world to change because her parents were killed in an intersection. 'That world' refers to her life before her parents died.
This sentence is used to show that Willow's old life, when everything wasn't temporary, is gone.

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"Right before school began in the fall, the anticipation I felt was like waiting for my Amorphophallus paeoniifolius to bloom" (Page 19, Chapter 3).
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This is a simile; Willow's anticipation is being compared to the blooming of her Amorphophallus paeoniifolius using the word 'like'.
This comparison is used to further strengthen Willow's love of gardening. It also expresses in a lyrical way that Willow was anxious for school to start.

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"The older kids, even the more outgoing ones who were trying to sell themselves, no doubt ended up the snakes at the petting zoo" (Page 158, Chapter 47).
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This is a metaphor; the older kids are being compared to snakes without using 'like' or 'as'.
This displays that, in terms of adoption, younger kids are more favorable than older kids.

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"You catch sight of swaying grass in a wide field. Weeds pushing up through a crack in the sidewalk are in the distance somewhere" (Page 15, Chapter 2).
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This is personification; nonhuman things, grass and weeds, are being given human characteristics, the ability to sway and push.
The figurative language is used to convey how amazing nature is and how Willow sees nature.

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"I’m putting my place in the universe into perspective.
I’m stardust.
I’m golden brown.
I’m just one small bit in a vast expanse"
(Page 184, Chapter 55).
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This is a metaphor; Willow is comparing herself to stardust without using 'like' or 'as'.
This is written to communicate that when looking at it from a scientific viewpoint, Willow sees herself as a small part.

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"All reality, I decide, is a blender where hopes and dreams are mixed with fear and despair. Only in cartoons and fairy tales and greeting cards do endings have glitter" (Page 100, Chapter 29).
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I think this is powerful because it shows how Willow, a grieving person, sees the world. Itit describes life through the emotions in it. Though it is objective and pessimistic, it provides another way of looking at reality.

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"I have seen trees that survive fire. Their bark is burned and their limbs are dead branches. But hidden under that skeleton is a force that sends a single shoot of green out into the world. Maybe if I’m lucky, that will one day happen to me" (Page 103, Chapter 31).
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I find this very powerful because it provides a message about resilience. Through this metaphor, the author shows that resilience happens naturally and that it is a powerful force.

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A flashback is used in Chapter 2 through Chapter 16, directly after the author introduces Willow's parents are dead. The flashback explains who Willow is, who some of the other characters are, and how Willow's parents died.
I know it is a flashback because the subtitle of Chapter 2 is "Two Months Ago." The subtitle of Chapter 17 is "Back in the now."

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"When I got to the trailer, I was able to say what I had been waiting all week to spring on her: 'Chị có khỏe không'" (Page 52, Chapter 12).
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Willow is speaking in Vietnamese. This is because her new friend, Mai, is Vietnamese and Willow wants to impress her. Willow's knowledge of this language will prove useful when she has to move in with Mia's family.

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Counting by 7s immediately reminded me of another novel I read, The Report Card by Andrew Clements. The latter is also a novel about a young genius. In both novels, the main characters face problems about being differentiated from everyone else because of their intelligence. They have a difficult time navigating school, but in the end are able to figure it out.

This is a link to the description of The Report Card.

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The Report Card by Andrew Clements | Scholastic

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Fifth grader Nora Rowley just wants to be considered normal, so she has always hidden the fact that she is a genius. Now she sets out to prove that grades are n