Counting by 7s
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40 free Counting by 7s trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Holly Goldberg Sloan's Counting by 7s begins on the worst day of a twelve-year-old's life and turns into a hopeful story about the people who gather around her. Willow Chance is awkward, exact and devoted to her plants and to counting in sevens. When she loses her adoptive parents, a counselor who barely does his job, a taxi driver with a stalled dream and a mother with troubles of her own end up building a new life with her. This quiz covers the whole novel: who Willow meets and where, how each of them changes, what happens to the bare courtyard outside Dell Duke's apartment, and how the custody hearing turns out. A handful of questions step outside the plot to look at the narration, the honors the story earned and Sloan's earlier career in film. It is made for students reading the novel in grades four to seven, and for the teachers, parents and reading groups alongside them. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works as a comprehension check, a review before a test or a printable discussion starter.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Counting by 7s, which language does Willow Chance teach herself so she can talk with her new friend Mai?
Vietnamese
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.
Q 02In Counting by 7s, what kind of sudden tragedy kills Willow Chance's adoptive parents, Jimmy and Roberta?
A car crash
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.
Q 03In Counting by 7s, what result on a standardized test makes Willow Chance's new teacher suspect cheating?
A perfect score
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.
Q 04In Counting by 7s, what kind of business does Pattie Nguyen, mother of Mai and Quang-ha, own and run?
A nail salon
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.
Q 05In Counting by 7s, which flowers does Willow Chance grow first when she returns to gardening after her loss?
Sunflowers
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.
Q 06In Counting by 7s, what does a remark from Willow Chance inspire taxi driver Jairo Hernandez to do?
Enroll in college
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.
Q 07In Counting by 7s, counselor Dell Duke files students under four kinds of strange; what does he label Willow?
Genius
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.
Q 08Counting by 7s was an honor book for a read-aloud award named after E. B. White, author of which classic?
Charlotte's Web
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.
Q 09In Counting by 7s, where are Pattie Nguyen and her two children living when they first take Willow Chance in?
In a garage
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.
Q 10In Counting by 7s, why does Willow Chance run through multiples of seven in her head, the habit behind the title?
To calm herself
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.
Q 11In Counting by 7s, Willow Chance has three obsessions: the number seven, plants and which other subject?
Medical conditions
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.
Q 12As Counting by 7s opens, what treat is Willow Chance sharing with Mai, Quang-ha and counselor Dell Duke?
Ice cream
Ice cream on a beautiful afternoon is the last easy moment: when Dell drives Willow home, a police cruiser is parked in her driveway.
Q 13In Counting by 7s, what is the name of the bedraggled cat Dell Duke takes to the vet and then brings home?
Cheddar
Q 21Willow Chance narrates her own chapters of Counting by 7s; which point of view tells Dell Duke's and Pattie Nguyen's?
Third person
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.
Q 22In Counting by 7s, Willow Chance's round glasses are compared to the pair worn by which famous figure?
Gandhi
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.
Q 23In Counting by 7s, Willow Chance once nursed a baby bird named Fallen in her garden; what kind of bird was it?
A parrot
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.
Q 14In Counting by 7s, what looming event sends Pattie Nguyen and Willow rushing to clean Dell Duke's messy apartment?
A social services visit
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.
Q 15Counting by 7s is set in which inland California city that its author calls often overlooked?
Bakersfield
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.
Q 16In Counting by 7s, which small object from Mai does Willow Chance push into the soil in the final scene?
An acorn
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.
Q 17In Counting by 7s, where does Willow Chance hide after slipping out of the hospital that stitched her head?
The library
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.
Q 18In Counting by 7s, what does Willow Chance spot on Jairo Hernandez's neck and urge him to have biopsied?
A mole
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.
Q 19In Counting by 7s, taxi driver Jairo Hernandez comes to believe that his young passenger Willow Chance is what?
An angel
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.
Q 20In Counting by 7s, where does Willow Chance find Pattie, Jairo, Dell, Mai and Quang-ha waiting on her custody day?
The judge's chambers
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.
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.
Q 24In Counting by 7s, what is the ironic name of Dell Duke's apartment complex, with its plantless courtyard?
The Gardens of Glenwood
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.
Q 25In Counting by 7s, what does Willow Chance see at the Jamison Children's Center that makes her faint?
A newspaper photo
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.
Q 26In Counting by 7s, what covers the courtyard of Dell Duke's apartment building before Willow Chance plants it?
Lava rocks
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.
Q 27In Counting by 7s, which machine, used to rinse off windblown dirt, also strips the apartment building's pink paint?
A pressure washer
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.
Q 28In Counting by 7s, which property of the tilled courtyard soil does Willow Chance test and find to be an ideal seven?
Its acidity
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.
Q 29In Counting by 7s, who arrives with a truckload of free plants to finish the courtyard Willow Chance began?
A nursery owner
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.
Q 30In Counting by 7s, why do a light and buzzer go off as Jairo Hernandez pays at a store?
He is the millionth customer
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.