This month I read Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt.
Fish in a tree. A Fish in a tree is surely not something you see everyday. But yet thats not quite the meaning. In the beginning of the story Ally is introduced.Ally is in the sixth grade and unbeknownst to herself for almost all of the story has dislexia. Ally has throughout seven different schools and seven different teachers she has been smart enough to fool a lot of people in many ways. All is truly a smart and talented girl that a incredible artist and phenomenal a mathematician, but she goes through a tremendous amount of struggle to read and write. For all the time she has spent in a classroom her teachers have told her off to be “not a dedicated enough student”, or even yet not smart enough. Later in the story after getting told by her “tell it as it is” friend Keisha to receive guidance for Ally’s problem with dancing letters Ally a comes to the conclusion, help from a adult wouldn’t be enough to cure dumb. So every time Ally gets called on in class she continues to make disturbing distractions. Then one day after Ally’s current teacher goes on maternity leave ally is left with a new long term sub, Mr. Daniels. Between his goofy ties and his spontaneous curriculum Ally believes he’s just like the others. He announces to the class that they will be doing a show and tell the following day and Ally knows exactly what to bring, she just has to pry it away from her brother Travis. Ally wants to bring and shinny coper penny her dad gave to her before he got deployed. After a bit of convincing in the morning, Travis that she wont lose it he lets her take it to class. Ally’s up third, first Keisha shows her rainbow marbled cupcakes, and Albert-the science lover shows his water samples Ally gets to present. As she tells the back story to her coin she stumbles and has and extremely hard time reading the flash cards her and her mom prepared for her a few of her popular yet uptight classmates chuckle and make fun of her. This isn’t the first incident that lead Mr. Daniels to think Ally needs special help because the next day when writing in their personal notebooks Ally decides to scribble with letters and draw figures in her book instead of doing the writing prompt. When Mr.Daniels questions her about it she tells him that thats what seems to be going on in her head. Mr.Daniels says he understands and when he gets up he hears the cruel things Jessica is saying about Ally this is the begging of the bullying. Later in the story Mr.Daniels convinces Ally to get dislexia tested, and sure enough she has it. Throughout the rest of the story Ally trains her brain to learn reading and writing and sticks up to her bullies.
My favorite quote in the book Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt is so amazing because the meaning is flexible and you can alter it to have meaning and purpose to your personal struggles and life. On page 267 the author proposed this quote, “Everybody is smart in different ways. but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing its stupid. I can connect to this quote in a way because part of me constantly puts unrealistic pressure on myself and the pressure others put on me to achieve a clean slate of grades and be the best on my sports team, to the point that when I fail I feel like I’m not enough. This quote reminds me that its ok to fail because everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.
If your ever in need of a good read I would totally suggest you check out Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. This book has a amazing plot that can lead you through the deepest saddest emotions but at the same time can make you grin a mile long. Fish in a tree is put through a perspective that isn’t quite your stereotypical middle schoolers. The perspective is from someone who has a common yet misunderstood disability. Reading from this view can expand your thinking about dislexia and can make you grateful about how you learn.
My Favorite Character in the novel would have to be Ally the main character. This is because she is relatable and never lets anyone bully her friends. For example around the end of thew story one of Ally’s friends, Albert starts to get physically and verbally bullied by A few guys in their grade for like Star Wars Ally decides to stick up for him but how she gets herself too shows her traits of being protective and relatable. One page 78 the text states, ” My brain began to race and all I could think about was how poor Albert needed help, but I was stuck, and couldn’t find the courage to help until I remembered if I was in his shoes I would be sobbing for someone to care about my situation. So step by step with no determination too pure Motivation I went over to defend my friend.”