Part 2
A new teacher, Mr. Daniels, takes over the class while Mrs. Hall is away, and he is unlike any teacher Ally has known. He calls his students ‘fantasticos,’ hands out notebooks that are never graded so kids can write and draw freely, and he seems genuinely curious about how each mind works. Ally, who has learned to expect the worst from teachers, does not trust him yet — in one ungraded notebook she draws a dark, empty room, a picture of how invisible she feels. Still hungry to belong somewhere, she drifts toward Shay and Jessica’s popular group, only to feel sick with guilt when they turn their cruelty on other kids. Everything changes at the holiday concert. When a classmate snatches away the flowers meant for shy, kind Keisha, Ally quietly breaks her own bouquet in half and shares it — and in that small, brave act, a real friendship is born. Keisha, confident and funny, sees Ally clearly. Meanwhile Ally starts to want, almost against her will, for Mr. Daniels to think well of her; she even attempts a writing assignment, though when it overwhelms her she invents a fake broken arm to get out of it. Slowly, in spite of herself, Ally is being pulled toward people who might finally see who she really is.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Belonging words: encourage, invisible, guilt, genuine, befriend… |
| Literary Elements | A foil to the old teachers, the dark-room symbol, and a friendship earned by kindness |
| Cross-Curricular | How the brain learns to read — letters, sounds, and practice |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapters 7–10 | Mr. Daniels Arrives — the warm new teacher hands out ungraded notebooks and calls his students ‘fantasticos’; wary Ally draws a dark, empty room to show how invisible she feels. |
| Chapters 11–13 | The Shared Flowers — Ally drifts toward Shay’s cruel group but feels guilty; at the concert she breaks her bouquet to share with Keisha, and a true friendship begins. |
Four words, and the middle two are what Ally has been living on. To encourage is to give support and confidence, which is what Mr. Daniels sets out to do for every student in the room, including the one who does not want it. Invisible means unable to be seen or noticed, and Ally has worked hard to be exactly that. Guilt is the bad feeling of having done wrong, and going along with the bullies fills her with it. Genuine means real and sincere, and Keisha is Ally’s first genuine friendship. Notice how the four line up against each other. Invisibility and guilt are what hiding costs. Encouragement and a real friend are what it costs to stop, and Hunt makes Ally pay the second price before she gets anything back.
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
The events of Chapters 7–13 become clearer when readers separate a character’s motive from the obstacle encountered and the response that follows. A new teacher, Mr. Daniels, takes over the class while Mrs. Hall is away, and he is unlike any teacher Ally has known. He calls his students ‘fantasticos,’ hands out notebooks that are never graded so kids can write and draw freely, and he seems genuinely curious about how each mind works. Ally, who has learned to expect the worst from teachers, does not trust him yet — in one ungraded notebook she draws a dark, empty room, a picture of how invisible she feels. Still hungry to belong somewhere, she drifts toward Shay and Jessica’s popular group, only to feel sick with guilt when they turn their cruelty on other kids. Following motive through response reveals why “A Teacher and a Friend” forms a consequential sequence.
- Ally drifts toward Shay’s group and feels guilty.
- At the concert, a classmate takes Keisha’s flowers.
- Ally draws a dark, empty room.
- Ally breaks her bouquet to share with Keisha.
- Mr. Daniels arrives and hands out ungraded notebooks.
The craft of Part 2 works through foil, symbol, and characterization, each shaping how readers judge the new conflict. Mr. Daniels works as a foil to every teacher Ally has ever had. Where past teachers graded, judged, and gave up on her, he offers ungraded notebooks, curiosity, and patience; where they saw a problem, he looks for a person. His difference measures, by contrast, exactly how badly the school system has failed Ally until now. Hunt uses him to make a quiet argument: Ally was never the only thing that needed to change — the teaching did too. Watch how Mr. Daniels notices things others missed — how Ally avoids reading, how her eyes work on a page — without shaming her. That authorial design makes “Mr. Daniels, the Anti-Teacher” a lesson in deliberate suspense.
Mr. Daniels is curious about how Ally’s mind works, and the science behind that question is worth knowing. Speaking is something a child picks up simply by being spoken to; reading is not. Written language is an invention only a few thousand years old, and no part of the brain evolved for it, so every reader has to borrow circuits built for other jobs and stitch them together. The key link is phonological awareness — hearing that a spoken word is made of separate small sounds, and matching those sounds to marks on a page. In most children that link forms quietly with practice. In a dyslexic reader it forms slowly and unreliably, which is why the effort never becomes automatic, and why the difficulty has nothing whatever to do with intelligence.
Think back over these chapters. A new teacher walks in and, instead of a red pen, hands out notebooks no one will grade, and calls a roomful of ordinary kids ‘fantasticos’ as if he means it. A wary girl tests him by drawing a dark, empty room — herself, unseen. She drifts toward the popular crowd and hates how it feels to laugh at someone else’s expense. Then, at a concert, a shy girl’s flowers are snatched away, and without a word Ally snaps her own bouquet in two and holds out half — and just like that, in an act instead of a sentence, she has a friend, and a first small proof that she is worth knowing.
- SATCentral Ideas — the main point of the passage as a whole
- TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated directly in the passage
- SATDetail — a fact the passage states directly
- TOEFLVocabulary — the meaning of a tested word as this passage uses it
- TOEFLProse Summary — choosing the three sentences that capture the main ideas
- SATInference — a conclusion the passage supports without ever stating it outright
Mr. Daniels is curious about how Ally’s mind works, and the science of reading makes that a rich question. Here is a surprising fact: the human brain is born ready to learn to speak and listen, but it is NOT born ready to read. Speaking is tens of thousands of years old and comes naturally to children who simply hear it; reading and writing are much more recent inventions, only a few thousand years old, and every single reader’s brain has to be specially trained to do it. No one is born knowing how to turn marks on a page into words.
Learning to read means wiring together three jobs the brain already does separately: seeing the shapes of letters, hearing the sounds those letters stand for, and reaching the meanings of words. With practice, most children build these connections until reading becomes fast and automatic — the letters seem to melt straight into meaning. In dyslexia, the letter-to-sound part of that wiring works differently, so the connections form slowly and reading stays effortful no matter how hard the reader tries. The encouraging truth is that the reading brain can keep changing at any age. With the right kind of practice — especially methods that link seeing, saying, and even touching letters at the same time — new pathways can be built, and readers who struggled can succeed. What this science means for Ally is powerful: her trouble is not a lack of intelligence but a difference in wiring, and the right teaching can rewire the path.
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 2 “A Teacher Who Saw Me”
Mr. Daniels notices Ally as a person, not a problem. Write about a teacher, coach, or adult who really saw you — who noticed something good in you or believed in you. What did they do, and how did it change how you felt about yourself? 6–10 sentences. End with what their belief gave you.
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 2 Complete!
You finished Chapters 7–13 of Fish in a Tree.
Here are your auto-graded results:
The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.