Fish In A Tree

by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Mrs. Hall sighs. “C’mon, now. I’m only asking for one page describing yourself.” I can’t think of anything worse than having to describe myself. I’d rather write about something more positive. Like throwing up at your own birthday party.

“They can call me anything they want. And believe me, they do. But they can’t say anything about Travis. Never.” “Is Travis your older brother?” “He’s my big brother.” He half smiles. “Is there a difference?” “Yeah. There is. An older brother is older. A big brother looks out for you and smiles when you walk into a room.”

don’t understand what it’s like to be different. But the thing is . . . I’m only different to the people who see with the wrong eyes. And I don’t care what people like that think.”

A lady talks about what a visionary Noah Webster was to create the first American spellers and dictionaries. Before that, people used to just make up spellings—there were no right or wrong ways to spell. Some visionary. This spelling stuff is all his fault, since he’s the one who got it in his head that we all needed to spell the same way. I’m thinking Noah Webster was a scoundrel and they should have put him in jail for this. The lady tells us it took him twenty years to write the dictionary, and he also wrote the first schoolbooks and grammar books. I think he must have been tipped off his rocker, as my grandpa used to say.

‘Everyone is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking that it’s stupid.’”

My grandpa used to say to be careful with eggs and words, because neither can ever be fixed. The older I get, the more I realize how smart my grandpa was.

Fantasticos,”

“Okay, my Fantasticos!”

“In fact, you’re all great, my fantastic Fantasticos!”

he leans over and rests his hands on his knees—“I’d like to add that you have one of the kindest hearts I know. You care so much about everything. Always looking out for others. And that, my fine young fellow, is going to make for a great man someday.”

An elephant is a pachyderm. It means an animal with a thick skin.” I guess we’re all pachyderms, then. Or we pretend to be. His finger picks at the side of his thumb. “Elephants feel a wide range of emotions, but their behavior remains constant. On the outside, happy and sad often look the same.” I can’t remember the last time I had nothing to say about something. All this time, I thought that Albert was the science guy with as much feeling as a pinecone. But I was wrong. All that watching he does. All that thinking. He really does understand things. He definitely gets me.

“Never, never, never quit. Winston Churchill.”

Grit. He said it’s being willing to fail but try again—pushing through and sticking with something even if it’s hard. He also told us that a lot of those famous people were not afraid to make mistakes no matter how many they made. I think messing up will bother me less than it used to.

“SOMETIMES THE BRAVEST THING YOU CAN DO IS ASK FOR HELP.” —C. CONNORS