Ally Nickerson, the narrator of Fish in a Tree, is an intelligent and creative middle-school girl who has difficulty reading and writing. Ally describes a typical day-to-day scene wherein her teacher, Mrs. Hall, urges her to participate in a writing exercise. The writing prompt is to “describe yourself” for the new teacher that will take Mrs. Hall’s place while she’s on maternity leave.

Ally pursues a number of distractions to avoid the writing activity, including sarcastic jokes, doodling in her sketchbook—which Ally calls “The Sketchbook of Impossible Things”—making “mind movies” in her imagination, and scribbling on her desk (12). When Mrs. Hall threatens to send Ally to see Mrs. Silver, the principal, Ally dreads the thought of continuing her long train of repeated visits. Ally thus agrees to write, though she only pretends to participate, repeating the word “Why?” over and over again from the top to the bottom of her page.

On one of the last days of school before her departure, Mrs. Hall throws a baby shower that everyone in her classroom attends. Ally brings Mrs. Hall a card that she has chosen for its pretty illustration of yellow flowers, unable to read the text inside.