Wish in a Tree — Lynda Mullaly Hunt

An uplifting picture book celebrating neurodiversity, starring characters from Lynda Mullaly Hunt's New York Times bestselling middle grade novel Fish in a TreeOliver's brain is always bubbling with ideas, endlessly asking questions, and imagining wild adventures. This makes it hard for him to sit still and focus at school. And it makes him feel different from the other kids—especially when his classmate Shay constantly calls him “weird.” Oliver wants to fit in, and he envies the ants he loves to observe—as they all have a place in their colony. Then at recess on one particularly hard day he hides in a tree to escape from the others. He wishes hard that he could be like everyone else. His friend Albert finds him, and when he praises Oliver for having such a unique outlook, he helps Oliver see his brain in a new light. According to Albert, if people like Oliver gave up and became like everyone else, we’d be without our visionaries—our inventors, artists, and scientists. And as Oliver starts to build his own colony of friends with kids like Albert, he discovers that although his brain might feel scattered sometimes, it's also what makes him an astonishing, thoughtful kid.