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87 pages 2 hours read

Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Fish in a Tree

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

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Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “In Trouble Again”

Ally Nickerson, the narrator of Fish in a Tree, is an intelligent and creative middle-school girl who has difficulty reading and writing. Ally describes a typical day-to-day scene wherein her teacher, Mrs. Hall, urges her to participate in a writing exercise. The writing prompt is to “describe yourself” for the new teacher that will take Mrs. Hall’s place while she’s on maternity leave.

Ally pursues a number of distractions to avoid the writing activity, including sarcastic jokes, doodling in her sketchbook—which Ally calls “The Sketchbook of Impossible Things”—making “mind movies” in her imagination, and scribbling on her desk (12). When Mrs. Hall threatens to send Ally to see Mrs. Silver, the principal, Ally dreads the thought of continuing her long train of repeated visits. Ally thus agrees to write, though she only pretends to participate, repeating the word “Why?” over and over again from the top to the bottom of her page.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Yellow Card”

On one of the last days of school before her departure, Mrs. Hall throws a baby shower that everyone in her classroom attends. Ally brings Mrs. Hall a card that she has chosen for its pretty illustration of yellow flowers, unable to read the text inside. When Mrs. Hall reads the card’s text, she is visibly upset. She motions Ally toward the door.

Another student—Ally’s bully, a rich and popular girl named Shay—teases Ally on her way to the door. A new student—a young woman of color named Keisha—sticks up for Ally, and Ally remarks that she admires Keisha’s bravery.

Out in the hall, Ally speaks with the principal, Mrs. Silver. Mrs. Silver explains that Mrs. Hall was upset by her card because it was a sympathy card (a card for someone whose loved on has died). Mrs. Silver asks Ally why she gave Mrs. Hall a sympathy card. Ally can’t bring herself to reveal the extent of her reading difficulties. 

Chapter 3 Summary: “Never up to Me”

In her office, Mrs. Silver questions Ally about her intentions with the card. She asks Ally to read a poster on the wall. Unable to read the words, Ally deflects by saying she knows “all about it already” (14). Though Mrs. Silver is skeptical, she is unsure how to resolve the issue. She lets Ally leave her office with a warning to “avoid any negative consequences” (14) with her new teacher, Mr. Daniels. Ally reflects that Mrs. Silver must be tired of dealing with her because “even I’m tired of me” (15).

On her way toward the door, Ally encounters Mrs. Hall in the hallway. She attempts to apologize but finds herself unable to do so, crushed by the fact that she hurt Mrs. Hall’s feelings.

Chapter 4 Summary: “Bird in a Cage”

Ally walks to the diner where her mother works as a waitress. Mrs. Silver has called Ally’s mother about the incident with the card, and her mother is distressed. She orders Ally to sit at the counter and do her homework while she finishes her shift. Ally pulls out a book and attempts to work, but the letters on the pages appear to “squiggle and dance” (17). Frustrated, she soothes herself by drawing a scene in the Sketchbook of Impossible Things.

Ally’s mother checks in with her and notices she’s drawing in the sketchbook. She loves how Ally named her sketchbook after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which her deceased grandfather would’ve appreciated. Ally and her grandfather were very close, and they often read from the book together. Ally feels a special connection to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland after his death, explaining that “a book about living in a world where nothing makes sense made perfect sense to me” (19).

Ally’s bully, Shay, visits the diner along with her nervously obedient friend, Jessica. The two girls order ice cream and tease Ally about her reading difficulties. As they laugh at her, Ally recalls a humiliating moment in second grade when her teacher wrote her own name—“Ally Nickerson”—and she was unable to read it. Overwhelmed, she retreats to the back of the diner, convinced this will be “the worst year I’ve had so far” (23).

Chapter 5 Summary: “Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels”

At home, Ally is greeted by her older brother, Travis, who declares he’s had “silver dollar day” (24). “Silver dollar day” is a term their grandfather used to describe good days, whereas “wooden nickel days” described bad days. Travis has had a silver dollar day because he’s fixed up a valuable old machine at the shop where he works after school.

Travis is a high school student who struggles with school but is gifted in the art of restoring old machines. He dreams of using his skills to start his own shop, which he plans to illuminate with a lighted sign that reads “Nickerson Restoration” (26).

Ally’s mother returns home from work and expresses her support. She sympathizes with Ally’s school struggles, saying she understands that their frequent moves (due to her father’s job in the military) have made it difficult for Ally to adapt. Her long work hours are another barrier to Ally’s success in school, and she wishes she had more time to help Ally with her schoolwork. She expresses the importance of Ally’s studies, however, emphasizing that she’s “so smart. Good at math. A gifted artist” (27). Because Ally is intelligent, her mother seems to believe that she will succeed if she simply applies more effort. 

Chapters 1-5 Analysis

From the beginning of the book, there are signs of Ally’s dyslexia, such as her inability to read the text of the yellow sympathy card and of how easy it is to misinterpret learning difficulties. Ally does not harbor any ill-will toward Mrs. Hall or harmful intentions toward her child; however, lacking a diagnosis for her learning difficulties, she is unable to explain why she unknowingly purchased a sympathy card.

The first chapters also suggest the lengths Ally goes to in order to conceal her learning difficulties, believing she will be negatively judged if she reveals them. This belief is based on years of accumulated experience with bullies—such as Shay—and misunderstanding from well-intentioned but overwhelmed authority figures such as Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Silver. Even Ally’s loving, supportive mother is unable to see through Ally’s concealment of her learning difficulties. Though Ally’s mother wants to help, she has her own responsibilities to attend to, putting in long hours at work. She is also under the misguided impression—shared by Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Silver—that because Ally is an intelligent girl who excels in math and art, she will excel in reading and writing if she chooses to apply herself.

The odds have been stacked against anyone discovering or diagnosing Ally’s learning difficulty or finding an effective way to help her learn. Because her father is in the military, she has moved to a number of different schools in a short period of time, and thus, her teachers have not grown to know and understand her unique learning style.

Ally herself, however, has developed numerous creative coping methods for understanding the world and dealing with her day-to-day challenges. Her coping tools include imaginative “mind movies”—wherein she visualizes analogies, strategies, and explanations for her environment—and The Sketchbook of Impossible Things—a set of visuals that Ally perceives as escapist entertainment, a mental break from her reality. The inspiration for Ally’s Sketchbook of Impossible Things comes from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a book introduced to her by her recently deceased grandfather. Ally’s grandfather understood and related to her unique perspective on the world, being an original and creative thinker himself.

Fish in a Tree further develops the possibility of hereditary creativity—and learning difficulties—with Ally’s older brother, Travis. Though Travis is gifted in the art of restoring antique machines—often developing his own out-of-the-box methods—he too struggles with reading and writing tasks in high school.

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