Module 4: Counting by 7s

Book Cover Image

Book Summary

Counting by 7s follows along with Willow as her life is tragically ripped out from under her in one fail swoop and as she becomes family with relative strangers. Willow is a 12 year old genius who out performs her peers and the expectations of her teachers. When she scores a perfect score on a standardized test her teacher sends her to meet with the district counselor because she must have cheated to score that well. An encounter with a an older girl at the counseling session fascinates Willow and provides her with the only connection she will have that will keep her from being sent to a group home.

Written by Holly Goldberg Sloan

APA Reference of Book

Sloan, H. G. (2013). Counting by 7s. New York, NY: Penguin Group.

Impressions

This book is a hard book to read only because it is hard to fathom a young girl losing both of her parents at the same time and leaving her with no family. Sloan does a wonderful job of painting a picture of Willow as she deals with this unfathomable amount of pain and loss. The writing allows readers to relate to Willow, even though Willow herself has a hard time relating to others. This is a good read to show students that you can come out of a very dark time. It takes Willow much time and support to do this, but she is able to be happy again. The major dramatic question leads readers to wonder what will happen to Willow. Will she have to go to a group home? Sloan keeps readers interested in the plot of the story in a way that keeps readers wondering how the counselor, nail salon owner and taxi cab driver can possibly come together to save Willow. 

Professional Review

Gr 5-8--Twelve-year-old Willow Chase lived with her adoptive parents in Bakersfield, California. There in the midst of the high desert, she grew a garden in her backyard, her sanctuary. She was excited about starting a new school, hoping this time she might fit in, might find a friend. Willow had been identified in preschool as highly gifted, most of the time causing confusion and feelings of ineptness in her teachers. Now at her new school she is accused of cheating because no one has ever finished the state proficiency test in just 17 minutes, let alone gotten a perfect score. Her reward is behavioral counseling with Dell Duke, an ineffectual counselor with organizational and social issues of his own. She does make a friend when Mai Nguyen brings her brother, Quang-ha, to his appointment, and their lives begin to intertwine when Willow's parents are killed in an auto accident. For the second time in her life she is an orphan, forced to find a "new normal." She is taken in temporarily by Mai's mother, who must stay ahead of Social Services. While Willow sees herself as just an observer, trying to figure out the social norms of regular family life, she is actually a catalyst for change, bringing together unsuspecting people and changing their lives forever. The narration cleverly shifts among characters as the story evolves. Willow's philosophical and intellectual observations contrast with Quang-ha's typical teenage boy obsessions and the struggles of a Vietnamese family fighting to live above the poverty level. Willow's story is one of renewal, and her journey of rebuilding the ties that unite people as a family will stay in readers' hearts long after the last page.

Ashton, C. (2013, Sept 1). Counting by 7s. School Library Journal, 59(9), 148.

Library Uses

This book can be used to talk to students about how they cope with stress. When Willow got stressed at school she counted by 7s. What are some other ways that we can deal with stress? A display could be created to allow students and teachers to add their stress relievers to the board. This would create a good resource for students to see how others relieve their stress.