Belonging and Human Connection
What This Theme Explores
Belonging and Human Connection in Counting by 7s asks what it means to find a home in other people when the familiar anchors of life disappear. The novel follows Willow Chance, who must rebuild a world after loss not by blending in, but by forming authentic relationships that honor her difference. It suggests connection is a practice—something made through attention, reciprocity, and shared effort—rather than a status you either have or don’t. Above all, the story reframes “family” as a choice, aligning belonging with the messy, resilient bonds of a Found Family.
How It Develops
At first, belonging is a closed circle: Willow’s family and her garden function as a private ecosystem where she feels fully seen. Beyond that circle, she is an outsider at school and in the larger social world. Her sense of place is tethered to Roberta and Jimmy Chance, and when they die, the narrative breaks that circle open, pushing Willow into a landscape of dislocation.
In the wake of that loss, connection becomes an urgent search. Pattie Nguyen offers shelter less out of sentiment than necessity, and that pragmatic gesture becomes the seedbed for new ties. As Mai Nguyen insists on keeping Willow close, as Quang-ha Nguyen grudgingly shares space, and as Dell Duke stumbles from observer to participant, the group begins to cooperate—first in small crises, then in shared projects that demand trust. These collective acts—not declarations—start to give shape to belonging.
By the end, the improvised household has grown into a community with rituals, responsibilities, and care that flows both directions. The transformation of Dell’s building and its grounds becomes a lived metaphor: a once-neglected place turns green because people keep showing up. Legal action then catches up to emotional reality when Jairo Hernandez and Pattie move to formalize guardianship. Belonging, the novel shows, is built in stages—through presence, through work, and finally through commitment.
Key Examples
The novel grounds its theme in concrete moments where characters move from isolation toward interdependence.
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Initial Isolation: On her first day of middle school, Willow wears her gardening uniform as an act of integrity that also isolates her. It’s a declaration that she belongs to the logic of the natural world more than to school’s social codes.
“I’m making a statement about my commitment to the natural world.” (Chapter 3) The line captures her self-possession while foreshadowing the distance she must bridge to find human connection.
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The First Connection: The ragtag search for Dell’s cat, Cheddar, forces a group of loners into collaboration.
“For 37 straight minutes, we all looked under cars, behind hedges, and around the buildings of the school district administration headquarters for the missing hunk of Cheddar.” (Chapter 10) The task is trivial, but the coordination is not: working side by side lowers defenses and turns strangers into teammates.
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Building a Home: Cleaning and staging Dell’s disastrous apartment for inspection requires logistics, creativity, and shared purpose. The stained-glass effect Willow and Quang-ha craft from broken bottles reframes damage as raw material for beauty (Chapter 34). Their collaboration becomes a wordless pact: they can make something better together than either could alone.
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The Climax of Belonging: In the judge’s chambers, Willow expects to stand alone and finds her people instead.
“I guess saying judge’s office doesn’t sound as powerful. And that’s when I see them. They are standing. Dell has on a suit, which is pretty tight. Next to him on one side is Quang-ha. On the other is Pattie. At Pattie’s elbow is Jairo. He also wears a suit, so I almost don’t recognize him. And in front, holding a big bunch of tulips, is Mai. They are all smiling.” (Chapter 60)
The scene literalizes belonging: presence, preparedness, and joy converge to announce a family formed by choice.
Character Connections
Willow’s arc tracks the shift from safety-in-solitude to safety-in-community. Her brilliance and routines once shielded her from a world that misunderstood her; grief disrupts those defenses. As she designs gardens, solves problems, and notices what others miss, she learns that her difference is not a barrier to belonging but a contribution that helps bind the group.
Dell embodies isolation by taxonomy—his “categories” keep people at a safe, sterile distance. Drawn into Willow’s orbit, he abandons labels for responsibilities and actions: he drives, he shows up, he allows his space to be transformed. Belonging turns him from a watcher of lives to a participant in them.
Mai and Pattie are architects of community. Mai’s insistence on inclusion converts sympathy into structure, while Pattie’s pragmatic care—beds found, papers filed, meals made—creates stability sturdy enough for love to grow. Together, they model how belonging is built through daily labor as much as through grand gestures.
Quang-ha resists most openly, treating Willow as an intrusion. Yet his artistry becomes a bridge: the skylight project and the garden give him ways to contribute without capitulating to sentiment. Being seen for his skill allows him to accept being seen, period, and his guarded edges soften into loyalty.
Symbolic Elements
The Garden: Willow’s original garden is a private sanctuary—order, growth, and comprehension under her hands. As the communal garden takes root at Dell’s apartment complex, cultivation becomes collective. Tending the soil requires shared rhythms and care, mirroring how the group tends to one another.
The Number 7: Counting by 7s begins as an intimate coping mechanism—precision as protection. By the novel’s close, Willow reinterprets the number as a constellation of people, turning a solitary ritual into a map of connection.
“I think that at every stage of living, there are 7 people who matter in your world... For me I count: 1. My mom (always) 2. and my dad (forever) 3. Mai 4. Dell 5. Quang-ha 6. Pattie 7. Jairo.” (Chapter 61) What once kept chaos at bay now names the ties that make life livable.
The Gardens of Glenwood: The building’s ironic name and initial neglect dramatize spiritual vacancy. Its transformation—from grime to light, from weeds to blooms—tracks the characters’ interior change, proving that environments can be remade when people claim them with care.
Contemporary Relevance
In an era marked by loneliness, fractured communities, and “connection” mediated by screens, the novel argues for the slow, tangible work of showing up in person. It celebrates difference as the very material from which durable communities can be built, and it insists that legal, cultural, and emotional forms of family can align through intentional choice. Counting by 7s offers a blueprint: start with empathy, add structure, share tasks, and let belonging emerge from commitments kept over time.
Essential Quote
“I guess saying judge’s office doesn’t sound as powerful. And that’s when I see them. They are standing. Dell has on a suit, which is pretty tight. Next to him on one side is Quang-ha. On the other is Pattie. At Pattie’s elbow is Jairo. He also wears a suit, so I almost don’t recognize him. And in front, holding a big bunch of tulips, is Mai. They are all smiling.”
This moment crystallizes the theme: belonging reveals itself not through declarations but through presence and preparation. The suits, the tulips, the gathered bodies in a formal space—each detail signals that choice and care have turned a precarious arrangement into a family.