Book Review: "Fish in a Tree" written by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

[Image Description: The image shows a picture of the book titled "Fish in a Tree" as an aqua colored book cover with an aqua colored fish in a light green tree with "Lynda Mullaly Hunt" in center-aligned white text at the top and "FISH IN A TREE" in bright pink to light blue to dark blue to light orange to turquoise to bright green to light green center-aligned bubble letters.]





    Fish in a Tree written by Lynda Mullaly Hunt is about a sixth grader named Ally Nickerson with undiagnosed dyslexia. Ally is frequently sent to the principal's office and has switched schools seven times in seven years because teachers just cannot seem to figure her out nor reach her. Every time Ally is enrolled at a new school, she hides her inability to read by creating disruptive distractions, which is common among students in the learning disability community to do out of frustration about their challenges. Ally experiences frequent bullying, especially from her peers named Shay and Jessica. They laugh at her, humiliate her, and call her "dumb", which is derogatory, and Mrs. Hall does nothing about this bullying, which is neglectful on her part. Shay especially never knows when to stop with the bullying. She has something to say for every little thing about Ally. This bullying and Ally's undiagnosed invisible disability make her afraid to ask for help and believe that she is "dumb," which is common among students with diagnosed and undiagnosed learning disabilities. To elaborate, "children often notice if they aren't learning at the same pace as the other kids and can assume it is because they just aren't smart" (Ehmke 2025). So, Ally internalizes her challenges with reading and struggles with fitting in and confidence, which is common among the disability community.


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    The book begins with Ally's teacher named Mrs. Hall questioning her about why is not participating in the writing assignment and tells her to put her drawings away in front of the whole class. While Mrs. Hall tried to encourage Ally to participate, Ally does not know what to write and is embarrassed about being questioned in front of the whole class, which violated her privacy. Shay also says to Ally, "Why can't you just be normal?" (pg. 1, Hunt 2015). Mrs. Hall tells Ally, "Just do your best"; however, Ally says that whenever she does try her best, teachers tell her that she "doesn't try hard enough", that her writing is "too messy" with "careless spelling," and are "annoyed that the same word is spelled different ways on the same page" (pgs. 2-3, Hunt 2015). Ally also says that she "gets headaches from looking at the brightness of dark letters on white pages for too long" (pg. 3, Hunt 2015). Some more of Ally's classmates continue to get frustrated by her struggles by name-calling her as "freak", "dumb", and "loser" (pg. 3, Hunt 2015). Eventually, Ally scribbles all over desk, which her teacher calls out her out for doing, and Ally lies that "it was there when I sat down" followed by her classmates laughing at her (pg. 4, Hunt 2015). Despite Mrs. Hall acknowledging that she can see that Ally is "upset" and Shay calling Ally a "freak," she tries to send Ally to the principal's office until Ally promises to do the assignment. Ally just writes "'Why?' over and over from the top of the page to the very bottom" (pg. 5, Hunt 2015). All of these challenges are common signs of dyslexia.

    After Ally's teacher named Mrs. Hall goes on maternity leave, Mr. Daniels becomes the long-term substitute teacher and changes Ally's education and life for the better by giving her a chance unlike her previous teachers. Mr. Daniels stands up for Ally and reprimands Shay and Jessica whenever they bully Ally. Mr. Daniels also later reveals to Ally that he is studying to earn his degree in Special Education. Mr. Daniels sets up after school meetings with Ally to work on her reading skills and play chess together. Mr. Daniels refers her to the school's reading specialist named Miss Kessler to be assessed for a diagnosis of dyslexia. Ally experiences the typical hardships of any middle schooler including bullies, etc. However, she forms genuine friendships with two of her peers named Keisha and Albert (online theories that he is autistic due to his strong abilities in math, science, and history and atypical interests) who accept her for who she is and stand up for her when Shay and Jessica bully her. They also support her throughout her learning and even help her achieve things that she never thought would be possible for her to be able to do.

    While every disability journey is different, Hunt portrays a realistic journey of life with dyslexia through a child's eyes as a dyslexic herself. Ally and Mr. Danielson's teacher-student relationship reminds me of Patricia Polacco and Mr. Falker's teacher-student relationship in her book titled Thank You Mr. Falker. Mr. Danielson shows a balance between focusing on and beyond Ally's struggles. He acknowledges Ally's strengths as gifts and tells her that she is "brave for coming to school every day, knowing what you're in for. Knowing school will be hard. And that other kids are going to razz you. And you still come every day and decide that you're going to try again" (pg. 157, Hunt 2015). Ally's specific strengths include being very funny, creative, artistic, witty, and having a strong imagination. Ally also has something called "mind movies," which are visual representations of Ally's thoughts and ideas that she draws her "Sketchbook of Impossible Things" (pg. 3; 279-290, Hunt 2015). This shows that Ally is a visual learner, which is common among individuals in the learning disability community due to being literal thinkers. As the story goes on, Ally's confidence grows resulting in her feeling freer to be herself and getting to know diverse peers. Ally learns that her disability does not define her meaning that it is not the only part of her and she has other equally important qualities because to quote Mr. Daniels, "Everyone is smart in different ways" (pg. 159, Hunt 2015).


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    I related so much to Mr. Daniels's teaching and disability advocate styles and philosophies. I also love that the book's title is based off of the German dyslexic and autistic physicist named Albert Einstein's quote, "If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid."

    Another thing I appreciate is representation of the fact that the challenges associated with learning disabilities do not only show up in academics. The common misconception that the challenges associated with learning disabilities only show up in academics is a disparity. In chapter two of Fish in a Tree, Ally gives a sympathy card that she picked out to her teacher named Mrs. Hall before she goes on maternity leave. Mrs. Hall and the principal named Mrs. Silver reprimand Ally for doing this and call her mother; however, due to Ally's difficulty with accurate word identification as part of her undiagnosed dyslexia at the time, she was unaware that the card was a sympathy card. She was also too afraid to speak up about this due to fear of judgement and believing that everyone thought that she was "dumb" at the time. Shay and Jessica also frequently ask Ally to read things as an attempt to humiliate her. This is first shown when they ask her to read the menu of ice cream flavors to them at A.C. Petersen's where Ally's mom works as a waitress.

    In addition, I appreciate that intersectionality is added to this story. Ally is a dyslexic girl who receives a late diagnosis as an invisible disability and has a father in the military. There is a lack of representation of girls in the learning disability community, late disability diagnoses, invisible disabilities, and children in the disability community with military parents. The commonality of learning disabilities being hereditary is represented in Fish in a Tree as well. The story implies that Ally's older brother named Travis who she has close sibling relationship with also has dyslexia when he says that he cannot help her with her homework. In the end, Ally introduces Travis and Mr. Daniels to each other followed by Mr. Daniels collaborating with Travis to support him along his dyslexia journey as well.

    Overall, I recommend this book to the dyslexia community, their families, all teachers, service providers, disability advocates, and anyone who is interested in learning more about dyslexia and Special Education.



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To learn more about Lynda Mullaly Hunt, visit the following website:
  • Author's website - https://lyndamullalyhunt.com/ (Lynda Mullaly Hunt's website provides access to audio read alouds of each chapter in Fish in a Tree and Open Dyslexic, Sans Serif, and Serif fonts/typefaces. These three fonts/typefaces are accessible to read over others for some people.)






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Citations

1. Ehmke, R. (5 Jun. 2025). Supporting the Emotional Needs of Kids With Learning Disabilities. https://childmind.org/article/supporting-the-emotional-needs-of-kids-with-disabilities/

2. Hunt, L. M. (2015). Fish in a Tree. Penguin Random House.

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