Review: "Fish In A Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

My rating: ★★★★☆

"Remember, Ally. When people have low expectations of you, you can sometimes use it to your advantage." Then he looks me right in the eyes and points at my nose. "As long as you don't have low expectations of yourself. You hear?"

I don't have much to say about "Fish in a Tree" except that I'd refer this heartwarming read to any educator … because I actually think the star of the story isn't the girl, but the teacher.

A story about grit, bravery, finding true friends, dealing with bullies, asking for help, offering help, and recognizing those who need it, "Fish" paints the transformation of Ally Nickerson, a dyslexic girl who started out deemed as nothing but an unruly middle-school student (so much so that she moved into seven schools in seven years) into the brilliant girl she already was. Her inability to read was something Ally herself decidedly regarded as "dumb" ("how can you cure dumb?"). Deep down, she's too ashamed of it to ask for help, because every year it's the same - schools label her a "slow reader". So she'd do anything, like pretending she's infected with the bubonic plague to avoid a writing assignment, to distract everyone from learning about her disability. Everyone but her newest teacher, Mr. Daniels, saw the bright kid underneath the troublemaker, and no sooner he reached out to help her discover there's a lot more to her than she thinks. 

Ally's story will help you break out of your shell and accept yourself as more than normal, because there's so much more than trying to fit in. My favorite character is Albert, one of Ally's best friends, who didn't let his need to belong compromise his integrity from the start. Like Ally, he also metamorphosed into an admirable boy who stood up for his dignity toward the end, even in the face of conflicting values.

Keisha whips around fast. "Why do you always try to pull people down?" she asks.

"Because some people deserve it, that's why," Shay answers.

"Deserve to be pulled down? Really?" Keisha asks.

Albert straightens his tie, which is the only part of his outfit that fits. He's even wearing his sneakers with the backs cut out.

"You know," he says, "logically, if a person was to pull another down, it would mean that he or she is already below that person."

I'm aware that there's already too many stories around that tells the same message, that it's triumphant to embrace your uniqueness, but as I said, the breakout star here is Mr. Daniels, and he's the reason anyone should be reading this book. Without his initiative, readiness to help, patience and flexibility to attend to his students' individual needs, Ally and her schoolmates will continue to misbehave, i.e. remain "not perfect and quiet", in their respective ways, which only reaffirms the labels people have already placed on them.

So much heart in this book that's similar to Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan, although I enjoyed Sloan's book more as it covers a more diverse range of subjects and characters that gives it extra depth. But at its core, "Fish" provides substance in a way that brings tremendous hope for those with special needs, or for anyone who's constantly feeling left out, for that matter. I can understand why the viewpoint is confined to Ally's, as the author wants to make her message extra clear for her young readers. Because it's such an easy read, I recommend this book to anyone with a spare time.

"People act like the words 'slow reader' tell them everything that's inside. Like I'm a can of soup and they can just read the list of ingredients and know everything about me. There's lots of stuff about the soup inside that they can't put on the label, like how it smells and tastes and makes you feel warm when you eat it. There's got to be more to me than just a kid who can't read well."

See this book on Goodreads.