Literature Circle/Non-Fiction Article blog

An essential question we had in our literature circle for the book Counting By 7s is, what effects is she (Willow) dealing with since she has been living with Pattie, Mia, and Quang-ha in Dell Duke's apartment? In the book so far I've seen that Willow tries not to not complain about anything because she feels like she is a burden. In the book it says, "But it's not her fault. I'm the problem."(Sloan, 213) This is an example of how Willow is saying that the things that are happening with Pattie, Mai, and Quang-ha having to move into Dell Duke's apartment is her fault. So far in the book Willow has come up with the idea to make a small little garden of sunflowers in the front of the apartment where they are now living. I think that she wants to do this so she can feel like she is actually doing something.

Gardening seems to be really present in the book from before the accident involving her parents to after. In the article "Can Gardening Help Troubled Minds Heal?" it talks about how gardening is a type of therapy called horticultural. In the book gardening is a huge part of Willow's life from before the accident because she wants wear her gardening outfit on the first day of school so people can see that this is who she is. After the accident Willow changes and doesn't do the same things that she did before. 

There are similarities in the way that the article and book both show how gardening can help someone. In the article it says, "'They can see the parallel of the garden and relate it to their own lives,' he says. 'It provides ways to engage in conversation and life lessons.'" This quote is trying to say that most people that do this type of therapy will compare themselves to the garden. They might do this so  they can find something that is similar to themselves. In the book it says, "Right now I'm the sunflower. Termporary, but attaching myself to the ground underneath me. The garden is challenging me, as always, to see my own situation." This quote connects to the one in the article because this quote from the book is confirming that people, like Willow, do use a garden as therapy will see how they are the garden in a way.

Husted, Kristofor. “Can Gardening Help Troubled Minds Heal?” NPR, NPR, 22 Feb. 2012, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/02/17/147050691/can-gardening-help-troubled-minds-heal. Accessed 11 May 2017. 

Sloan, Holly Goldberg. Counting by 7s. New York, Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013.