Wish in a tree

Based on characters from Hunt's best- selling middle-grade novel Fish in a Tree (2015), this picture book brings neurodiversity to a younger audience. While his peers sit still at their desks, completing their assignments dutifully, Oliver fidgets and his "brain blazes" as he imagines his yellow no. 2 pencil as a rocket and questions zoom around his thoughts. Digitally enhanced photo-collage illustrations that feature childlike doodles and schoolthemed media, such as finger paint, a variety of writing papers, and real school supplies, relate Oliver's unspecified neurodivergence and the isolation he feels after classmate Shay taunts him. Like the original novel, this story uses a metaphor to help readers understand and appreciate Oliver's unique way of thinking. In this case, it's his love of ants and how they all have a colony in which they belong. Although some students occasionally talk like adults ("I would relish a brain like yours"), they also acknowledge Oliver's gifts and welcome him into their "colony." Once again, Hunt encourages compassion and self-acceptance in all readers.

Oliver, a neurodivergent child introduced in Hunt's novelFish in a Tree (2015), makes his picture-book debut. Oliver feels like "a dragon in a paper house." While his classmates work quietly, he fidgets and involuntarily makes noises. His brain "blazes." He imagines his pencil as a rocket, and his mind fills with questions: Could a pencil rocket reach Saturn's rings? Shay, the class bully, calls him "weird" and "lazy," unlike "the rest of us"--but the things Oliver says to himself hurt even more. At recess, Oliver makes a wish: "Please…please make me more like the rest of them." Fortunately, not everyone is like Shay. Jada's impressed by Oliver's knowledge of ants, and Albert reminds him that famous inventors, scientists, and artists persisted despite being mocked: "Justimagine the things we wouldn't have without all of your astonishing brains!" Cheered, Oliver dubs Jada and Albert his "colony": "In an ant colony,everyone matters." Now he's proud to be a dragon in a paper house: "Isn't it good to have a little fire inside?" Though the dialogue is somewhat heavy-handed, readers, especially those with learning differences, will appreciate the message that, like a tree with colorful autumn leaves, the world is "most beautiful" when people are all different. Energetic cartoon illustrations cleverly convey Oliver's vivid imagination as well as his emotions. Most characters, including Oliver, have light skin; Jada is brown-skinned. Affirming and uplifting.(Picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.