40 Fun Facts About Counting by 7s

In Counting by 7s, which language does Willow Chance teach herself so she can talk with her new friend Mai?

Vietnamese is Mai's native tongue, and Willow practices until she can greet her in it outside the counseling office. Mai is impressed, and a friendship begins.

In Counting by 7s, what kind of sudden tragedy kills Willow Chance's adoptive parents, Jimmy and Roberta?

A car crash takes both parents on the same afternoon, while Willow is out with friends. She comes home to find police officers waiting with the news.

In Counting by 7s, what result on a standardized test makes Willow Chance's new teacher suspect cheating?

A perfect score on the standardized test gets Willow sent to counselor Dell Duke as a suspected cheat. He soon realizes she simply knew every answer.

In Counting by 7s, what kind of business does Pattie Nguyen, mother of Mai and Quang-ha, own and run?

A nail salon called Happy Polish Nails is Pattie's livelihood, and her children walk there after Quang-ha's counseling. Willow, too grief-stricken for class, spends her days there with Pattie.

In Counting by 7s, which flowers does Willow Chance grow first when she returns to gardening after her loss?

Sunflowers grown from one packet of seeds that Dell buys are her first step back. The seedlings later move into the apartment courtyard, the start of a project everyone joins.

In Counting by 7s, what does a remark from Willow Chance inspire taxi driver Jairo Hernandez to do?

Enroll in college is the dream Jairo had shelved, and Willow's encouragement sends him to pick up a course pamphlet on his next break. He takes her words as a sign.

In Counting by 7s, counselor Dell Duke files students under four kinds of strange; what does he label Willow?

Genius is Dell's verdict, since Willow fits none of his usual four groups: misfits, oddballs, lone wolves and weirdos. He borrowed the sorting idea from a retired counselor.

Counting by 7s was an honor book for a read-aloud award named after E. B. White, author of which classic?

Charlotte's Web author E. B. White gave his name to a prize from independent booksellers for books that beg to be read aloud. Counting by 7s was a middle-reader honor book the year Flora & Ulysses won.

In Counting by 7s, where are Pattie Nguyen and her two children living when they first take Willow Chance in?

In a garage behind Pattie's shop is where the family sleeps, so Pattie gives the county Dell Duke's address instead. Dell is shocked when he finally sees the place.

In Counting by 7s, why does Willow Chance run through multiples of seven in her head, the habit behind the title?

To calm herself, Willow counts upward in sevens, the number she loves most. On the night she loses her parents she finds she cannot do it at all.

In Counting by 7s, Willow Chance has three obsessions: the number seven, plants and which other subject?

Medical conditions fascinate Willow so much that she sizes up the health of the people she meets, from counselor Dell Duke to a caseworker with a sore back.

As Counting by 7s opens, what treat is Willow Chance sharing with Mai, Quang-ha and counselor Dell Duke?

Ice cream on a beautiful afternoon is the last easy moment: when Dell drives Willow home, a police cruiser is parked in her driveway.

In Counting by 7s, what is the name of the bedraggled cat Dell Duke takes to the vet and then brings home?

Cheddar turns up in rough shape just after Dell has fled a parking mishap, and caring for him pushes Dell to own up to it. Willow and the cat are soon inseparable.

In Counting by 7s, what looming event sends Pattie Nguyen and Willow rushing to clean Dell Duke's messy apartment?

A social services visit is due that evening, and Pattie has listed Dell's address as her own. She buys furniture and clears his hoarded junk until the place looks lived in by a family.

Counting by 7s is set in which inland California city that its author calls often overlooked?

Bakersfield suits the story, author Holly Goldberg Sloan has said, because the city is emblematic of her characters. It sits near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley.

In Counting by 7s, which small object from Mai does Willow Chance push into the soil in the final scene?

An acorn that Mai called lucky rides in Willow's pocket to her custody hearing. Planting it afterwards is her way of putting down permanent roots with her new family.

In Counting by 7s, where does Willow Chance hide after slipping out of the hospital that stitched her head?

The library has always been Willow's refuge, so she phones Jairo for a ride there and hunts for books on losing a parent. When Dell tries to find her, Mai takes charge of the search.

In Counting by 7s, what does Willow Chance spot on Jairo Hernandez's neck and urge him to have biopsied?

A mole catches her eye on their second ride, after Jairo has cut his hair. She puts the warning in writing and hands it to him.

In Counting by 7s, taxi driver Jairo Hernandez comes to believe that his young passenger Willow Chance is what?

An angel is how Jairo sees her, because each ride with Willow nudges his life onto a better path. Willow, ever literal, does not think of herself that way.

In Counting by 7s, where does Willow Chance find Pattie, Jairo, Dell, Mai and Quang-ha waiting on her custody day?

The judge's chambers hold the surprise: Pattie and Jairo have applied for, and won, permanent custody. Willow had expected to be sent to live with strangers.

Willow Chance narrates her own chapters of Counting by 7s; which point of view tells Dell Duke's and Pattie Nguyen's?

Third person narration follows the people Willow changes, so readers watch her effect on Dell, Jairo and the Nguyens from outside. Her own chapters keep her precise, cerebral voice.

In Counting by 7s, Willow Chance's round glasses are compared to the pair worn by which famous figure?

Gandhi glasses and unruly, long curly hair are Willow's look. She resembles neither adoptive parent, yet she feels the three of them naturally look like a family.

In Counting by 7s, Willow Chance once nursed a baby bird named Fallen in her garden; what kind of bird was it?

A parrot chick, Fallen grew strong enough to fly and Willow returned him to his flock. Later she compares her makeshift household at Dell's to a flock of birds.

In Counting by 7s, what is the ironic name of Dell Duke's apartment complex, with its plantless courtyard?

The Gardens of Glenwood has no garden at all until Willow builds one. When Pattie sees the finished courtyard, she remarks that the building has at last earned its name.

In Counting by 7s, what does Willow Chance see at the Jamison Children's Center that makes her faint?

A newspaper photo of the scene where her parents died is lying on a coffee table. Willow blacks out, cuts her head on the table's edge and has to be taken for stitches.

In Counting by 7s, what covers the courtyard of Dell Duke's apartment building before Willow Chance plants it?

Lava rocks over a plastic liner fill the space, and Willow notices how easily both lift away. When the stones are offered free, people squabble over who gets them.

In Counting by 7s, which machine, used to rinse off windblown dirt, also strips the apartment building's pink paint?

A pressure washer blasts away the grit and, with it, the ugly pink paint. To make the walls match, the friends end up spraying the whole building, and even Jairo pitches in.

In Counting by 7s, which property of the tilled courtyard soil does Willow Chance test and find to be an ideal seven?

Its acidity, measured as pH, comes out at a neutral seven, and Mai points out that this is Willow's favorite number. Dell had to run the tiller alone to get the bed ready.

In Counting by 7s, who arrives with a truckload of free plants to finish the courtyard Willow Chance began?

A nursery owner named Henry, who had worked with Willow before, turns up with coworkers and a truck full of gifts. Dell had quietly kept the plan a secret from her.

In Counting by 7s, why do a light and buzzer go off as Jairo Hernandez pays at a store?

He is the millionth customer, and the prize is $20,000, about what a year of driving his taxi earns. For a moment Jairo assumes he has done something wrong.

In Counting by 7s, what is released at the memorial for Willow Chance's parents, to her silent dismay?

Balloons are bad for the environment, as plant-loving Willow well knows, but she cannot bring herself to object. The service was organized by people from her father's union.

In Counting by 7s, which post is Dell Duke offered once the bank approves the courtyard plan Willow wrote?

Building representative is the reward for a proposal Willow researched at City Hall and filed under his name. Dell, who fears authority, had to be talked into even delivering it.

In Counting by 7s, Dell Duke's note urging Willow to take his cat to her next home calls the cat what?

A therapy dog is Dell's odd phrase for the cat, in a note he has Mai leave on Willow's pillow. He writes it when Willow seems sure she will soon be moved on.

In Counting by 7s, which bargain purchase by his mother leaves teenage Quang-ha Nguyen feeling embarrassed?

Robot underwear, bought on sale, is one of Quang-ha's grievances the night Willow arrives. Another is having one more person squeezed into the family's cramped quarters.

In Counting by 7s, what reason does Mai give her school so she and Quang-ha can attend Willow's custody hearing?

A family emergency is the excuse, and by then it is hardly a lie: the Nguyens have come to count Willow as one of their own.

In Counting by 7s, what does Jairo Hernandez fear Willow Chance is when she studies his paperwork before riding?

An undercover investigator is his first guess, because she reads his documents so carefully before getting in. For Willow, riding alone with a stranger simply feels like a bold risk.

In Counting by 7s, what does Willow Chance silently hand caseworker Lenore Cole when the two first meet?

A written list of her wants and needs is what Willow has been compiling to keep her mind occupied. Leaving with Lenore then means a painful goodbye to Pattie.

In Counting by 7s, what does Dell Duke assign Quang-ha Nguyen in place of a real counseling session?

Coloring book pages, three of them with geometric designs, keep Quang-ha busy while Dell slips out, supposedly for a soda. It shows how little effort Dell puts into his job at first.

In Counting by 7s, which form of exercise does Willow Chance take up alongside counselor Dell Duke and Mai?

Running makes Dell look so alive when he comes back from it that Willow, deciding she is not physically fit, asks to join him. Mai decides to go along too.

In Counting by 7s, which insects does Willow Chance buy by the carton because she believes they are lucky?

Ladybugs, a carton of red ones, come back with her from the trip on which she asks a local plant expert about her courtyard. He then comes to see the site for himself.