Counting by 7s — Summary and Analysis

At a Glance

Genre: Contemporary middle-grade fiction
Setting: Present-day Bakersfield, California (homes, a nail salon, a school, and a transformed apartment complex)
Perspective: Primarily Willow’s first-person voice, interwoven with close third-person chapters that follow other characters

Opening Hook

Willow Chance counts by sevens to steady a world that rarely makes sense to her. A brilliant 12-year-old who loves plants, patterns, and medical puzzles, she lives in careful order—until a sudden accident shatters everything. What follows is not just a story of grief, but of unlikely kinship: a mismatched group of strangers who choose one another. As they rebuild a home out of nothing, Willow discovers that belonging can be grown—like a garden—even in the most barren soil.

Plot Overview

Act I: Loss and Collision
We meet Willow Chance, a gifted outsider obsessed with sevens, botany, and diagnosing ailments, whose intelligence isolates her at school. After she aces a standardized test at a new campus, she’s accused of cheating and sent to the district counselor, Dell Duke. In Dell’s office she crosses paths with siblings Mai Nguyen and Quang-ha Nguyen. An awkward ice-cream outing follows—then catastrophe: when Dell drives Willow home, they find police at the house. Her adoptive parents, Roberta and Jimmy Chance, have been killed in a car accident.

Act II: Improvised Family
Numb and untethered, Willow is briefly placed at a county facility, where she faints, is stitched up at the hospital, and then quietly commandeers a taxi driven by Jairo Hernandez—a man she once encouraged to get a troubling mole checked, a nudge that altered his life. Meanwhile, Mai lies to authorities that her family knows Willow well, pushing her mother, Pattie Nguyen, into temporary guardianship. To keep social services at bay, they list Dell’s address (not Pattie’s cramped garage) on the paperwork, and everyone ends up camped in Dell’s messy apartment. The chaos begins to organize: Willow tutors Quang-ha, Dell reluctantly learns responsibility, and the motley household reclaims a dead courtyard with a communal garden—Willow’s vision of Growth and Renewal made tangible. As the plants take root, so do new routines and relationships; Jairo pursues education and connection with Pattie, and the apartment complex becomes a true community.

Act III: Choosing One Another
The looming custody hearing threatens to dissolve the arrangement they’ve built. Willow braces for another loss, even as she recognizes how deeply these people have entwined their lives with hers. At court, she discovers that Pattie and Jairo have jointly petitioned for guardianship. The judge approves, and Willow is no longer a temporary guest but a chosen daughter within a resilient web of Found Family and Community. Surrounded by the people who saved her—and whom she has saved in return—she finally feels anchored.

For a scene-by-scene outline, see the Full Book Summary.

Central Characters

A small circle of outsiders—each carrying private disappointments and quiet strengths—coalesces around Willow. Their growth is gradual, practical, and earned, as daily acts of care accumulate into a home.

Willow Chance
A preternaturally observant 12-year-old whose ordered routines collapse after her parents’ death.
- Uses systems (sevens, plants, diagnoses) to make sense of emotion and chaos.
- Channels grief into purpose through teaching, organizing, and gardening.
- Learns to accept help—and to see love as a pattern worth trusting.
Mai Nguyen
Loyal, decisive, and unflinching in a crisis.
- Her protective lie sets the entire “family” into motion.
- Models peer-to-peer caregiving that is practical, not performative.
Pattie Nguyen
A no-nonsense single mother whose pragmatism hides deep tenderness.
- Provides structure, safety, and standards without fanfare.
- Grows from reluctant caretaker to intentional parent by choice.
Dell Duke
A disorganized school counselor forced into responsibility.
- Moves from passive avoidance to active participation in others’ lives.
- Learns that competence can be cultivated, much like a garden.
Quang-ha Nguyen
A guarded teen whose cynicism shields talent and vulnerability.
- Improves academically under Willow’s guidance.
- Finds expression and pride in creative work and shared labor.
Jairo Hernandez
A taxi driver whose path shifts after Willow’s early advice.
- Pursues education and commitment, becoming a steady father figure.
- Embodies how small kindnesses can redirect a life.
Roberta and Jimmy Chance
Loving adoptive parents whose absence is felt in every chapter.
- Their memory becomes Willow’s moral compass and emotional root system.

For profiles and arcs, visit the Character Overview.

Major Themes

Grief, Loss, and Healing
Grief, Loss, and Healing unfold here not as a neat arc but as a nonlinear process of shock, withdrawal, and slow re-engagement. The novel refuses quick fixes: healing arrives through routine, responsibility, and the steady presence of others, not grand gestures.

Belonging and Human Connection
True Belonging and Human Connection come from being seen and needed. The apartment garden and shared living arrangements create interdependence, showing how doing life together—meals, chores, schoolwork—builds bonds stronger than words alone.

Difference and Acceptance
Every main character is “out of place” somewhere—socially, economically, or temperamentally. The story argues for Difference and Acceptance by showing how quirks become contributions once a community values them.

Kindness and Compassion
Acts of protection, mentorship, and honest labor drive the plot. From Mai’s risky lie to Dell’s reluctant caregiving, Kindness and Compassion ripple outward, transforming individuals and the larger community.

Growth and Renewal
The courtyard garden is more than metaphor; it’s a practice of attention, patience, and shared ownership. As plants take root, characters do, too—demonstrating that renewal requires tending, time, and faith in small daily changes.

For extended thematic analysis, see the Theme Overview.

Literary Significance

Counting by 7s stands out in middle-grade literature for its clear-eyed portrayal of grief alongside buoyant hope. Holly Goldberg Sloan crafts a memorable, neurodivergent-leaning protagonist whose intellect is both a refuge and a barrier, and she surrounds Willow with a chorus of ordinary people capable of extraordinary care. The novel reframes family as a choice forged through responsibility and constancy, not merely sentiment or blood. Its humor softens hard truths about the foster system, loss, and class, while the garden motif offers a concrete vision of communal repair. Beloved by classrooms and book clubs, the book endures because it dignifies both the ache of absence and the everyday work of building a life together.

Full Book Summary