Part 3
Ally notices that Albert, a big, brilliant, oddly formal boy who loves science and wears the same Star Trek shirt, keeps showing up with bruises — he is being beaten up by a gang of bullies called the Chums, and, believing in nonviolence, he refuses to fight back. Ally invites him to eat lunch with her and Keisha, and the three of them — the misfits no one else wants — become a real team. Shay sneers that they are like the ‘Island of Misfit Toys,’ but Ally begins to understand that being a misfit just means being different, not being less. In class, Mr. Daniels leads a discussion about the difference between being ‘alone’ and being ‘lonely,’ and Ally — who knows loneliness from the inside — gives an answer so wise it surprises everyone, including herself. Her confidence flickers to life. But it is fragile: when Ally wins a poetry contest, her joy collapses as she realizes the award was really given out of pity, a consolation prize, not earned respect — and the humiliation stings worse than losing would have. Still, something is shifting. With Keisha and Albert beside her, Ally is no longer facing the world alone, and the idea that different might be good is beginning, slowly, to take root.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Friendship words: misfit, bruise, nonviolence, lonely, consolation… |
| Literary Elements | The misfit trio, the alone/lonely theme, and a victory that stings |
| Cross-Curricular | Many ways to be smart — intelligence beyond reading |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapters 14–16 | The Misfit Team — Ally sees Albert is being hurt by bullies and invites him to join her and Keisha; the three misfits become real friends, and Ally learns different is not less. |
| Chapters 17–19 | Alone vs. Lonely — Ally gives a wise answer about loneliness, and her confidence stirs; but a poetry prize turns out to be a pity award, and the humiliation stings. |
“Words of the Misfits” names the verbal pattern running through Chapters 14–19 of Fish in a Tree. The term misfit, marked as a noun, conveys a person who does not fit in; notice its role here: Shay called the three friends misfits. The term bruise, marked as a noun, conveys a dark mark on the skin from a blow; notice its role here: Albert kept showing up with bruises. The term nonviolence, marked as a noun, conveys the refusal to use force or fighting; notice its role here: Albert believed firmly in nonviolence. The term lonely, marked as an adjective, conveys sad from being without company; notice its role here: Ally had been lonely in a crowd. Placed in sequence, the terms reveal how the journey changes the characters’ social nuance.
ⓘ 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.
This portion of Fish in a Tree links setting to conflict, then measures the human change produced by that collision. Ally notices that Albert, a big, brilliant, oddly formal boy who loves science and wears the same Star Trek shirt, keeps showing up with bruises — he is being beaten up by a gang of bullies called the Chums, and, believing in nonviolence, he refuses to fight back. Ally invites him to eat lunch with her and Keisha, and the three of them — the misfits no one else wants — become a real team. Shay sneers that they are like the ‘Island of Misfit Toys,’ but Ally begins to understand that being a misfit just means being different, not being less. This event pattern makes “Three Misfits, One Team” the section’s central reversal.
- Ally wins a poetry prize but learns it was given out of pity.
- The three misfits become a real team.
- Ally notices Albert’s bruises from the bullies.
- Ally gives a wise answer about being alone versus lonely.
- She invites Albert to lunch with her and Keisha.
Across Chapters 14–19, allusion interacts with theme and irony to complicate the apparent meaning of events. When Shay mocks the trio as the ‘Island of Misfit Toys,’ she is making an allusion — a reference to another famous story, here the toys in a classic holiday special who are cast aside for being different. Shay means it as an insult, but Hunt turns it inside out. In that very story, the ‘misfit’ toys turn out to be lovable and needed exactly as they are. So the insult accidentally tells the truth: Ally, Keisha, and Albert are not broken toys but rare ones. Watch how the book keeps taking the words meant to wound Ally — ‘different,’ ‘misfit,’ ‘stupid’ — and quietly flipping them into badges of worth. That authorial design makes “The Island of Misfit Toys” a lesson in deliberate contrast.
The world behind Chapters 14–19 becomes more legible through many, ways, and smart. The friendship of Ally, Keisha, and Albert quietly makes one of the book’s biggest points: there is more than one way to be smart. Schools mostly measure a narrow kind of intelligence — reading, writing, and test-taking — but human ability is far wider than that. Psychologists have long argued that people are gifted in many different areas: some think in words, others in numbers, others in pictures and space, or music, or their bodies, or their deep understanding of people. Albert is a scientific genius; Keisha is a gifted baker and a fearless communicator; Ally is a brilliant visual thinker, an artist, a chess mind, and a person of rare emotional wisdom. This context turns Part 3 from a private adventure into a broader question of ethics.
Think back over these chapters. A girl notices that a brilliant, gentle boy keeps arriving marked with bruises, and that he will not raise a hand to stop it. She makes room at her table, and suddenly three kids the school has written off — the artist, the baker, the scientist — have each other. A mean girl calls them broken toys, not knowing that in the story she is quoting, the broken toys are the ones who are loved best. And when a teacher asks the class what it means to be lonely, the girl who has been lonely in every crowded room she ever sat in says something so true that the whole class goes quiet — and, for a moment, so does the voice inside her that keeps saying she is nothing.
Ally, Keisha, and Albert are called misfits, but a look at how intelligence really works shows how wrong that label is. Schools tend to measure a narrow band of ability: reading, writing, spelling, and test-taking. A child who struggles there, like Ally, is quickly labeled ‘behind’ or worse. But human intelligence is far wider than any test. Researchers who study the mind have argued for decades that people are gifted in many separate ways — some think powerfully in words, others in numbers, others in pictures and space, in music, in physical movement, in nature, or in a deep understanding of other people.
Seen through that wider lens, the three friends are not misfits at all; they are a gallery of different talents. Albert reasons like a born scientist; Keisha runs a small baking business and speaks her mind without fear. Ally thinks in vivid images, invents impossible machines, reads a chessboard at a glance, and understands other people’s feelings with unusual depth. Not one of these gifts appears on a spelling test — which is exactly the danger the book exposes. When a school prizes only one kind of smart, it teaches children who are brilliant in other ways to believe they are stupid. The truth is the opposite of the ‘misfit’ label: difference is not a lack of intelligence but a different shape of it, and a classroom is richest when it makes room for every kind.
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 3 “My Kind of Smart”
Ally, Keisha, and Albert are each smart in a way no test measures. Write about a way YOU are smart or talented that does not show up on a regular test — art, sports, understanding people, building things, humor, or anything else. What is your gift, and how have you used it? 6–10 sentences. End with why this kind of smart matters.
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 3 Complete!
You finished Chapters 14–19 of Fish in a Tree.
Here are your auto-graded results:
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
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.