How Does 'Fish In A Tree' Portray Dyslexia In Its Main Character?

When I suffered from major depressive disorder, my academic performance plummeted. When my mother saw the big red 'F' on my exam paper, she was so furious that she tied my hands behind my back and threw me into the fish pond. “I scrimped and saved to send you to tutoring classes, and this is how you repay me? “Stop with this depression nonsense! You’re just being dramatic. You need a wake-up call. Stay in that pond until you come to your senses!” The weather was cold, and the water was freezing. I was never a good swimmer, so I could only beg for mercy. My mother, however, ignored my pleas. She forcibly dragged my father away to attend my cousin’s college send-off party. The waterweed wrapped around my feet and pulled me under. I decided to stop struggling. “Mom, I’m sorry I couldn’t be the perfect student you keep hoping for. Maybe you’ll be relieved to be rid of me.”

Precious has always felt different from her peers, she has always had a hard time fitting in, so she wears a hoodie to be invisible but this only makes her visible and an easy target. Everything changes when a ghost Tommy suddenly appears and makes her life more complicated. Precious learns things about herself that her parents had kept from her, and realises she really isn't like others around her. Will she be able to fulfil her purpose?.

Polly is an Aspin who got separated from his mother and brothers when he was very young. He struggled to keep himself alive. He wanted to belong but what he got was rejection after rejection, heartache after heartache - yet he marched on with his leg that could not be bent. This is a story of survival - a story of hope - that even with his leg that could not be bent, love is possible.

I couldn’t speak until I was eight years old. Everyone in the Sterling family called me dumb. Even my mother would secretly wipe away tears, convinced she had given birth to an autistic daughter. Whenever my father looked at me, his eyes were filled with nothing but disappointment. However, for the sake of the family’s reputation, he could never bring himself to send me away to a special education school. Then came the day someone from a prominent hedge fund company arrived to acquire our family company, Sterling Group. He was so arrogant that he chewed out everyone in the boardroom until all of them hung their heads low. The room full of corporate executives fell silent, too terrified to speak. Meanwhile, I stood there in the corner, listening to the whole thing until I felt sleepy and fed up. Taking a step forward, I spoke the very first words of my life.

Ever since I was young, I've always been the one made an example of. It's as though I exist solely to teach my older brother, Irwin Blanchard, a lesson. When Irwin spends 50 dollars in an online game, Mom makes me pay off the debt for Irwin so that she can teach him to cherish money. When Irwin gets caught for stealing, Mom forces me to kneel down in front of the store owner and slap myself repeatedly while begging for forgiveness. This is her attempt to teach Irwin to always feel shame and be humble. After Irwin starts junior high, he gets addicted to soft drinks. That's when Mom fills soda bottles with pesticide and places them in the most obvious spots in the living room. When I accidentally drink from a soda bottle, I'm in so much pain and agony that I keep rolling all over the floor. Dad quickly drives me to the hospital that night. On the way there, we are flagged down by a traffic officer, who's there to catch those who drink and drive. Even though Dad has already passed the breathalyzer test, Mom exclaims while laughing, "Your device really is useless! He already had a bottle of beer, and yet it couldn't even detect the alcohol in his breath!" Meanwhile, I feel as though my guts are on fire as I curl up in the backseat. Yet, Mom turns to stare at Irwin. "You see now? This is what you get for drinking!" Too engrossed in nagging Irwin's ear off, Mom fails to notice the fact that my breathing is growing weaker. Mom, are you happy now that your lesson has cost me my life?

Amy Wilkes feels invisible at school, since she is quiet and shy, reason why people either ignore her or mock her, except her childhood friend, Dana. The other person besides her best friend that is nice to her is Jonah Parker, the popular and attractive soccer team captain whom several girls have a crush on, Amy included. Her life drastically changes when her school makes a school trip to a biology lab that suffers an accident. At first nothing seems to have changed but after that incident she discovers she has the ability to be invisible at her own will. She feels even more akward after discovering this new ability, as she is scared to tell her brother Sean, who is also her guardian, and her best friend about this discovery and how they will react. She tries to be normal trying to control this new ability, wishing to be unnoticed, and "invisible", as she has always been as she fears to be treated like a freak if her secret is discovered. However, she will discover her life will no longer be normal, now adjusting to a new ability she never asked for but seems to be part of her now.