Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

At the center of Counting by 7s is Willow Chance, who is not your average 12 year old girl. Willow is gifted, probably a genius. She obsesses over plants and gardening, researching medical conditions, and she finds comfort in the number seven (the book’s title riffs on this idea). Willow, who is of mixed ethnicity, was adopted as a baby by white parents. She has a happy home life, but her interests and social awkwardness make it difficult for her to connect with other kids at school. She is an outsider and a misfit.

When Willow’s adoptive parents are tragically killed in a car accident, Willow has no other family to take her in and has nowhere to go. Counting by 7s tells how a group of people with little to nothing in common, except for a tenuous acquaintance with Willow, rally around her in unexpected and beautiful ways. Along the way, Willow responds to life as a ward of the state, navigates various stages of grief and loss, and learns how to move forward again.

The book blends Willow’s charming first-person narration (the way she processes how others speak and behave is fascinating and humorous) with the third-person perspectives of a variety of quirky and compelling supporting characters:

Mai, a confident teenage girl who demonstrates leadership beyond her years in taking action to meet Willow’s needs
Quang-ha, Mai’s surly older brother, whose unmotivated and rebellious behavior is a mask for a young man with surprising gifts and interests
Pattie, Mai and Quang-ha’s mother, a force of nature. She emigrated to the US from Vietnam and works tirelessly at her nail salon to support her family
Dell Duke, who is in way over his head as a school counselor and cannot even counsel himself as a functional adult man
Jairo Hernandez, a taxi driver whose fortuitous encounters with Willow change the entire direction of his life

Counting by 7s continues the long, some might say tired, YA fiction tradition of a central character who is different and also exceptional in some way. However, the heartbeat of hope and self-sacrificial love makes this novel stand out among a crowded field of “orphaned protagonist” books. Although this book does not spring from a Biblical worldview nor does it promote Christianity, there is a refreshing sense of virtue that is missing from much of today’s young adult literature. You will fall in love with Willow Chance – and find yourself rooting for her from the very first chapter.

Reading Level: 11+
Read Aloud Age: 11+

Despite prose that would be accessible to upper elementary kids, the complicated themes (including tragic death, foster care, and a potentially neurodivergent main character) make Counting by 7s a more appropriate reading choice for middle schoolers. Due to the book being remarkably clean for a 21st-century YA novel, a parent or caregiver can share this book with their middle schooler without fears or reservations about profanity or blatant vulgarity. However, reading the book with your child could potentially bear some wonderful fruit, as the story presents numerous opportunities to share a Biblical worldview on adoption, love as a choice vs. love as a feeling, and how the family of God united to Jesus Christ transcends even the bonds of biological family.

One of the most captivating themes presented by Counting by 7s is redemption through self-sacrifice. Some of the supporting characters that enter Willow’s life are presented as selfish and rudderless. These characters make gradual and incremental choices to inconvenience themselves in order to serve and support Willow. And in this process, they are transformed. Here is another opportunity for discussion about the lasting power to change belonging exclusively to the Holy Spirit.

Many Christians work diligently to identify books for young adults that are “clean” and without coarse or crude content. A common thread I’ve noticed running through many of these books is that they are very old. Now, there is nothing wrong with old or old-fashioned stories. But sometimes our kids want to hear stories that reflect their own time. Because of the current surge of publications that promote anti-Biblical ideologies, it can feel nearly impossible to find stories that are both modern and virtuous.

This is what is so refreshing about Counting by 7s. It is a modern story with modern characters that eschew modern cultural baggage.

Language:
Coarse Talk: references to someone “cussing” or someone “cursing” themselves; reference to a person who “swore”; a counselor mentions kids who are violent, steal, or do drugs; some frank talk around foster care from Willow’s perspective that “they don’t want you after your baby teeth fall out” and “parents pick the blond kids first”

Name-calling: Screw-ups, losers, idiot, jerk

References to unflattering depictions of adults: a principal (e.g., “Principal Psoriasis”) and multiple descriptions of Dell Duke as an incompetent person

References to beer and wine, and adults consuming beer and wine. Reference to one character’s “drinking problem.”

Questionable Behaviors:
Willow takes notice of others’ physical appearance throughout the book, although not to insult them but rather to observe them. These observations have a clinical quality to them, as if she was conducting a medical or health evaluation. One mention of a person’s “butt”. Other mentions of general chubbiness or clothing being ill-fitting due to a person’s overweight frame.

Dell Duke, the school counselor that Willow is required to see after her teacher suspects her of cheating, is an inept, pitiful man. At the beginning of the book, he is so bad at his job that he categorizes his students into groups based on insulting labels: misfits, oddballs, lone wolves, and weirdos. Dell is also easily manipulated by young people.

Willow often performs work for others who then submit the work under their own name. She does this either as a favor to them or because the work itself won’t be taken seriously if it’s known it was completed by a child.

The characters use deceit on multiple occasions. For example, Willow does not tell her parents that she’s been required to see a school counselor. She lies about having migraines to get out of PE. She sneaks out of the hospital. Mai also lies to the police so that Willow can stay with her after her parents died. An elaborate ruse is constructed to keep Willow in Pattie’s custody. Dell lied on his resume to get his job.

Willow hacks into a security system and the email of an adult character, although she acknowledges it’s wrong and it makes her feel sick to do so.

The descriptions of Dell Duke’s apartment infer that he is a hoarder.

Reference to a character believing the color red is “lucky.”

Violence:
There is mention of the car accident that killed Willow’s adoptive parents. The scene is not graphically depicted. It is factual and not sensational.

Referring to a stranger, Willow thinks that he “does not appear to be someone who would kidnap me and cut me up into small pieces.”

One reference to a facility being a place “probably for kids who have parents who hit them or don’t feed them real food.”

In one scene, Willow faints and injures her head on a table.

One reference to a foster child at a group home who has a burn on her arm. Willow gets a “bad feeling…thinking that someone did this to her.” Another reference to children in foster care situations who have suffered “physical abuse” and “criminal behavior.”

One hyperbolic reference to people worshipping Satan.

Sexual Content:
Willow observes that in middle school, there is “more touching than I thought there would be.” Many of Willow’s social observations have a similar kind of curious, detached quality.

One reference to “media reports of teenagers trying to kill themselves” and “teenage pregnancy.”

Two male characters like a TV show with a “group of out-of-control young women in bathing suits competing in a canoe contest”. They prefer shows with “acts of violence and appealing females.” Brief references to them calling these girls “hot”, “superhot” or “smoking”, which Willow finds inappropriate. These two male characters watch a girls’ volleyball game “intently.”

Reference to two adult characters, a man and a woman, who appear to Willow to have “some kind of relationship, which looks like more than friends.”

Other Things to Know:
The book mentions Willow’s adoptive parents’ prolonged struggles with infertility. Willow remembers that her adoptive mother did get pregnant, but “twice she couldn’t keep the fetus” and also “her cake failed to bake.”

If you choose to read this book aloud to your kids, be warned that there is some difficult scientific jargon! Willow is fascinated by medical conditions as well as botany, and the book is full of muti-syllabic, tricky Latin names.

This review is written by contributor, Nancy. To learn more about Nancy, click HERE.

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