Fish in a Tree
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40 free Fish in a Tree trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Fish in a Tree follows Ally Nickerson, a sixth grader who has changed schools again and again and has carried the same secret into every one of them: the letters on the page will not hold still for her. She covers it with jokes, doodles and trips to the principal's office, until a new teacher, Mr. Daniels, looks past the trouble and sees a bright, creative kid with dyslexia. The novel has become a classroom favorite, and readers tend to remember exactly how it made them feel. This quiz walks through the whole book, from the baby shower disaster in the opening chapters to the last scene with Travis. Expect questions on Ally, Keisha and Albert, on Shay and her followers, on Mr. Daniels's lessons, puzzles and after-school chess games, and on the family coins and sayings that run through the story, plus a couple on the writer and the saying behind the title. Students can use it as an end-of-book check or as practice before an AR quiz, and teachers get a ready-made multiple choice set to run in class or print. The first questions are the gentlest, the later ones are hard enough to test a close reader, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Fish in a Tree, what kind of card with yellow roses does Ally give at Mrs. Hall's baby shower?
Sympathy
Sympathy cards are what Ally's mom sends when someone has died, but Ally picked this one for its flowers and had no idea what it said.
Q 02In Fish in a Tree, Ally draws her daydream 'mind movies' in a book she calls the Sketchbook of what?
Impossible Things
Impossible Things is a nod to Alice in Wonderland, the story Ally's Grandpa loved to share with her. Late in the story it is no longer the only thing that makes her happy.
Q 03In Fish in a Tree, Albert tells purple-wearing Shay that the royal dye once came from which animals?
Snails
Snails supplied the slime behind the color, Albert explains, and one medieval cloak took three thousand of them. He and Ally agree they would rather wear beige.
Q 04In Fish in a Tree, what job does Ally do from the back seat of Travis's old car?
Working the wipers
Working the wipers by hand falls to Ally because the motor has died, so Travis rigs them with springs and a rope. To her the car looks like a pickle on wheels.
Q 05In Fish in a Tree, what does Ally wear to school to dodge Mr. Daniels's story-writing task?
An arm sling
An arm sling on her writing arm is Ally's excuse, blamed on tripping over a cat called Pork Chop. Mr. Daniels looks doubtful and hands her a book instead.
Q 06In Fish in a Tree, the color wheel Ally spins for her hero Roy G. Biv blurs into which color?
White
White is what the spinning wheel shows, though most of the class had guessed something dark. Mr. Daniels had already called Ally an out-of-the-box thinker for inventing the hero.
Q 07In Fish in a Tree, what does Ally overhear about the friendship bracelets worn by Shay's followers?
They are for sale
They are for sale: Jessica still owes $3 for her last one, and Shay sneers that Ally could have one for $10. Ally sees then who her true friends are.
Q 08At the holiday concert in Fish in a Tree, what does Ally do when Keisha's flowers are taken away?
Splits her own bouquet
Ally splits her own bouquet in half so her classmate has some too. The music teacher takes both halves away, yet the two girls sing with the biggest smiles and become friends.
Q 09In Fish in a Tree, the poster in Mrs. Silver's office says the bravest thing to do is what?
Ask for help
Ask for help is the poster's message, the one Ally bluffed about months earlier. This time the principal says sorry for not spotting her struggle sooner.
Q 10In Fish in a Tree, what finally makes Albert fight the boys who leave him bruised?
They push his friend down
They push his friend down, and the boy who rejects violence finally swings back, warning the bullies never to touch his friends again. He walks taller afterward.
Q 11In Fish in a Tree, Ally heads after school to A. C. Petersen Farms, where her mom has which job?
Waitress
Waitress is the job Shay and Jessica sneer at when they come in for ice cream. Their dig that Ally could do it too if she could read the flavors makes her fear they know her secret.
Q 12In Fish in a Tree, Max is thrilled to learn that Ally's deployed dad drives what for the Army?
A tank
A tank is what her dad drives, which comes out when Shay objects to the soldier's picture hanging in Ally's diorama. Max fist-bumps Ally and spreads the news.
Q 13In Fish in a Tree, what does Ally's brother Travis dream of opening once he is out of school?
A restoration shop
Q 21In Fish in a Tree, Ally thinks Shay turned on her after Ally won which school prize?
The art award
The art award is one cause; the other is a lunchtime mix-up in which Ally grabbed a hunk of Shay's cake, wrongly believing Shay had eaten her cheese crackers.
Q 22At Shay's birthday party in Fish in a Tree, why does Ally cup a butterfly in her hand?
To make a wish
To make a wish is her aim, because Albert once described a belief that a butterfly carries a whispered wish to the spirits. Shay calls her a freak show for it.
Q 23In Fish in a Tree, Mr. Daniels says Ally deserves a trophy for telling apart which two words?
Alone and lonely
A restoration shop named Nickerson Restoration is the plan, and Travis mends machines by feel. Getting through school, and later a boss who wants repairs done by the manual, stand in his way.
Q 14In Ally's family in Fish in a Tree, a good day is a silver dollar day; what is a bad one called?
Wooden nickel
A wooden nickel day is the family's code for a bad one. Ally later decides that as a coin she would be a wooden nickel herself, even after giving the best answer of the year.
Q 15In Fish in a Tree, Ally shows a 1943 steel penny, minted when copper was needed for what?
Ammunition
Ammunition for World War Two took the copper, Ally tells the class. Her dad gave her and Travis a penny each when he deployed, as reminders that they are unique.
Q 16In Fish in a Tree, what clear liquid does Albert drink from a jar at show-and-tell?
Water
Water, which Albert first describes as two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, came from his own kitchen. He wants the class to see how small humans are in the story of the planet.
Q 17In Fish in a Tree, what name does Keisha plan to give her baking business?
Hidden Messages
Hidden Messages is the name, and her show-and-tell cupcake has 'yum' standing inside it in dough letters. Mr. Daniels calls the possibilities infinite, which Albert disputes with math.
Q 18In Fish in a Tree, what does Ally draw to test Mr. Daniels's promise not to correct notebooks?
A black cube
A black cube, she admits, is a dark room where nobody can see her. Mr. Daniels replies that he is glad she isn't invisible, and Ally decides she wants to impress him.
Q 19In Fish in a Tree, which word does Ally write over and over on her page for Mrs. Hall?
Why
Why is the one word on the paper, written at the reading table after Ally scribbles on her desk. Mr. Daniels later asks her what the page means.
Q 20Albert's Flint T-shirt in Fish in a Tree honors a character who fled unkind people in which series?
Star Trek
Star Trek gave Albert his Flint, a man who settles on his own planet and builds robots to protect him. Albert, bullied most days, says he understands the appeal.
Alone and lonely differ, Ally says, because the first can be a choice and the second never is. Worst of all, she adds, is the second kind in a room full of people.
Q 24In Fish in a Tree, why does Ally run from class after her poem wins Mr. Daniels's prize?
She thinks it's pity
She thinks it's pity, not merit, because classmates wrote poems she rates far above hers. Keisha follows her into the bathroom and says wanting to fit in with Shay's crowd is silly.
Q 25In Fish in a Tree, Mr. Daniels says tutoring Ally after school will count toward his degree in what?
Special education
Special education is what Mr. Daniels is studying, so he presents the tutoring as Ally doing him a favor while formal accommodations are arranged. She thinks she would sleep at school if it worked.
Q 26In Fish in a Tree, Mr. Daniels first mentions dyslexia to Ally on a trip to whose historic home?
Noah Webster's
Noah Webster's house is where Mr. Daniels finds Ally outside on a swing set after Shay humiliates her. Ally had just decided the dictionary maker was a jerk for standardizing spelling.
Q 27In a colonial schoolroom in Fish in a Tree, what does Shay draw on her slate above the label 'Ally'?
A dunce cap
A dunce cap on a head is the drawing, made just after the guide shows the class a real one. Ally runs out in tears, and her teacher follows.
Q 28The saying about a climbing fish behind the title Fish in a Tree is popularly credited to whom?
Einstein
Einstein usually gets the credit, though quote researchers doubt he ever said it. In the novel Mr. Daniels tells Ally only that someone once did.
Q 29In Fish in a Tree, Ally practices huge letters with her finger on a metal sheet covered in what?
Shaving cream
Shaving cream lets Ally write her letters huge, because Mr. Daniels wants her to learn words through more senses than just her eyes. He compares it to taking another road to the same place.
Q 30In Fish in a Tree, Ally pictures classmates as chess pieces; which one is Shay, for scaring others?
The queen
The queen is Shay's piece, while Albert is the slow but valuable king and Keisha the quick bishop. Ally then wins the game and asks whether her teacher let her.