87 pages • 2 hours read
Lynda Mullaly HuntFish in a Tree
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Scrambled Egg”
Mr. Daniels changes the assigned seating in his classroom, forcing his students to become better acquainted with one another. Ally is assigned to sit next to Keisha. She awkwardly blurts out that she “doesn’t mind being your friend” (58).
When Keisha reacts with annoyance, Ally thinks about how Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland argued with Humpty Dumpty about using the right words. This prompts her to ask Keisha if she likes eggs, which confuses Keisha even further.
At lunchtime, Shay invites Ally to sit with her and her friends. Ally is skeptical, but she joins them because she greatly desires to be normal and gain the respect of people like Shay. Ally observes the many friendship bracelets Jessica wears and longs to have one of her own.
In the lunchroom, Shay makes fun of Albert for wearing sneakers with cut-off backs. Albert explains that the sneakers have simply become too small, but he finds it illogical to stop wearing them when they are otherwise in fine condition. Shay continues to taunt Albert and encourages Ally to join in. Eager to earn Shay’s approval, Ally says that his sneakers look “pretty dopey” (62).
Albert brushes off their teasing. Ally feels guilty for saying mean things she didn’t believe, but she recognizes that she did so because she “was lonely” (63).
Chapter 12 Summary: “What’s Your Problem, Albert?”
At home that night, Ally confides in her mother about the teasing incident. Ally’s mother says she understands why she joined in the teasing but tells her she needs to make it right.
The next day, Keisha sees Ally’s sketchbook and is impressed with her drawing ability. She begins to bond with Ally, but Ally awkwardly interrupts their conversation by attempting to touch Keisha’s braided hair. Ally privately explains that she admires Keisha’s hair because it’s different from her own “boring hair” (66).
Ally approaches Albert and apologizes for making fun of him. Albert tells her the incident didn’t bother him. Instead, his mind is absorbed in a challenging math problem involving an insect in a train car.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Trouble with Flowers”
The night of the holiday concert, Jessica’s father—a local florist—donates bouquets of flowers for all of the girls to hold. When Keisha leans down to smell her flowers, a bloom pops off the bouquet. The music teacher—Mrs. Muldoon—takes Keisha’s flowers away, believing she popped the flower off on purpose.
In a show of camaraderie, Ally divides her own bouquet into two halves and hands half to Keisha. Though Mrs. Muldoon ultimately takes away both bouquets, Keisha is moved by Ally’s kind gesture.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Boxed In and Boxed Out”
Every Friday, Mr. Daniels gives the class a challenging puzzle to solve. The first puzzle involves guessing the shape and size of objects hidden inside four numbered boxes. Students must guess the identity of the objects without opening the boxes.
Ally is placed on a team with Max, Suki, Oliver, and Jessica. Ally’s visual-spatial intelligence greatly benefits her team, and they are able to work together and guess the identity of each boxed object. Ally is even able to see through a trick puzzle in the fourth box, which holds “two glue sticks tied together with string, taped to the sides of the box, leaving the glue sticks hanging in the middle” (81). Even Jessica is impressed by Ally’s skills. Mr. Daniels remarks that he has done this activity with hundreds of students and “no one—in all those times—has ever been able to figure that out” (80).
Chapter 15 Summary: “Ungreased Gears”
For homework, Mr. Daniels asks each student to write a paper describing their feelings about a story he read in class. Ally is anxious about performing well on the assignment and asks Travis to help her. Travis tells her he wishes he could help, but he too struggles with writing.
Ally works hard on her paper. Though she labored for hours, she worries that Mr. Daniels will think she “spit it out in two minutes” (84). She is temporarily distracted from her anxiety by a kind friendship offering from Keisha: a cupcake that says “Wow” inside.
At the end of the school day, Mr. Daniels invites Ally to his desk and asks her about the assignment she turned in. He asks how long it took her to complete her homework, noting that it’s more than she usually writes. She confesses that the assignment took her a long time.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
After years of misunderstanding and confusion around her learning differences, Ally longs to be normal and fit in. Thus, she idolizes the friendship of popular girls Shay and Jessica, and she yearns to be accepted by them. Shay manipulates Ally’s desire by encouraging her to tease Albert, and it is clear that Shay makes a habit of targeting anyone she perceives as different or abnormal.
Contrary to Shay’s cruel, distorting perspective, Ally’s growing friendship with Keisha teaches her the value of reaching out to those who feel different. Ally immediately recognizes the beauty of Keisha’s hair precisely because it is different from her own. By offering half of her flowers to Keisha, Ally attempts to make her feel like she belongs, and Keisha appreciates this extension of kindness.
Meanwhile, Travis shows more signs of his own struggles with school, comparing his reading and writing abilities to “ungreased gears” in Chapter 15. He suggests that he has inherent strong abilities in certain areas—such as fixing machines—but that his struggles with reading and writing are permanent disabilities.
Mr. Daniels’ teaching, however, undermines the idea that disabilities are permanent. Ally’s success with the Friday puzzle even suggests that her supposed “disability”—which she has adapted to through years of painstaking effort and strategic visualizations—actually serves her well when solving difficult problems.
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