Peter Steeves, my cuz, who shared his early coin-collecting adventures.
Dr. Kevin Miller, USN, Yoshiko Kato, Marlo Garnsworthy, and Leah Tanaka, for your help with Japanese culture and language.
My Maine chess experts: Lance Belounqie, Gabriel Borland, William Burtt, Carther S. Theogene, Owen Wall, Matthew Fishbein, and Arthur Tang.
The following teachers and their 2012–2013 classes for being early listeners and helping to title some chapters: Ms. Melanie Swider, Mrs. Susan Dee, Ms. Pattie Uccello, Ms. Rachel Wulsin, and Ms. Wendy Fournier.
Audrey Dubois, Suzannah Blass, Molly Citarell, Abbey Citarell, Grace Bremner, Samantha Eileen Miller, and Chrissy Miller, who helped with some of the details. Thanks!
Susan Dee, Angela Jones, and Sharon Truex, early teacher-readers. I appreciate your time, wisdom, and support. Thank goodness there are teachers like each of you in the world.
Maureen Brousseau and Mary Begley, who taught me the most important things about teaching while at Gilead Hill School in Hebron, Connecticut.
Judy Miller, who taught me the most important things about myself.
Ms. Carol Masonis, Ms. Patricia Yosha, Ms. Anita Riggio, and Mr. Constantine Christy. Gifted teachers who were the best I ever had as a student. Life-changers, every one of you.
Greg—thank you for being you. Love always.
Finally, I could write volumes on how grateful I am for Greg, Kimberly, and Kyle. Your creative gifts, intelligence, humor, and thoughtfulness helped to inspire these characters, and your love and daily support make the whole ride worthwhile. You’ve each given me more silver dollar days than I could have ever imagined. Love you all infinity times around Pluto. Again.
Dear Readers,
Like so many other adults, I started out as a kid.
I was typical in a lot of ways. Being a girl whose companions were often her older brothers or a neighborhood full of boys, I became good at climbing trees, skateboarding, and baseball. On a skateboard or holding a bat at the plate at the bottom of the ninth, I was confident. I felt like I could handle—and even excel at—what I was doing.
But sitting at a school desk was often a different experience. I remember sitting back and scanning the other kids in the class, wondering why I couldn’t be more like them. How were they able to do their work so quickly? By the time I was Ally Nickerson’s age, I remember sitting at our dining room table, staring at my brother’s high school textbooks and wondering how I would ever get through. Like Ally, I wondered what would become of me.
Then, as a sixth-grader, I was placed in class with Mr. Christy, who would later serve as my model for Mr. Daniels. Little did I know he would change the path of my life. Why? Because he changed my perception—how I viewed myself—and that was so powerful.
My perception was that the other kids were just better. I learned later that they weren’t—being better at taking tests didn’t make them better; it just made them better test takers. But at first, I let those negative thoughts seep in. I began to assume that I wouldn’t be good at things, so I went through a time when I didn’t try as hard as I could. I just figured it didn’t matter.
However, Mr. Christy had confidence in me. He had me tutor younger kids. He handpicked books for me to read and helped me move out of the lowest reading group. He smiled when I walked into the room. After a while, I began to mirror his confidence in me and left his class ready to set the world on fire.
We all have both our special talents and areas where we need to work a bit harder. Honestly, I’ve learned much more from—and have been ultimately successful because of—my failures. Things will not always be easy; sometimes we do fail. But it isn’t failing that makes you a failure. It’s staying down that does. The ability to stand up, brush yourself off, and try again is a huge strength. It’s something that will take you very far in your life. Very far indeed. If you develop a habit of standing up and trying again, just imagine the phenomenal things that could be in store for you.
Thank you for picking up Fish in a Tree. I do hope you have enjoyed meeting Ally, Keisha, Albert, Mr. Daniels and the others.
And remember: Great minds don’t think alike.
Take care,
Lynda
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Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Fish in a Tree
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