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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Counting by 7s, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Independent Thinking
Bureaucracy
Grief and Survival
Chosen Family
Summary
Analysis
Willow Chance is a 12-year-old who is on a trip with a couple friends to Fosters Freeze, where they serve soft ice cream. She speaks Vietnamese with her new friend Mai, but Vietnamese isn’t Willow’s first language. The girls are at the ice cream place with Quang-ha (Mai’s older brother) and Dell Duke, a school counselor who brought them there. Willow called both her mom and dad before going to Fosters Freeze, but neither answered nor returned her call, which is unusual.
The beginning of the story introduces main character Willow Chance and immediately raises questions about her life. It doesn’t answer, for example, why Willow knows how to speak Vietnamese or why her school counselor is taking her for ice cream. Willow’s ability to speak a second language at such an early age suggests potential, but the lack of a response from Willow’s parents is more ominous foreshadowing of what will happen next.
Active
Themes
When Dell Duke takes Willow home, she sees police parked in the driveway. The neighborhood is increasingly deserted, with Willow’s former neighbors having left after their home went into foreclosure. When they get out of the car, one of the cops asks Willow if she knows Roberta and James Chance. She says they’re her mom and dad. They ask about Dell, who explains that he’s the school counselor.
The neighbor’s home in foreclosure suggests that Willow doesn’t live in a wealthy neighborhood. As the first chapter goes on, it soon becomes clear that this isn’t a random day in Willow’s life but in fact the day of a very important event. The presence of the police, along with Dell, is an early hint of the role that bureaucracy and authority figures will continue to play throughout the story.
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Themes
The cops take Dell Duke aside to speak with him. But Willow can still make out the words “There’s been an accident.” As she keeps listening, she realizes to her horror that her mom and dad are dead.
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Themes
