What Do Fish Have to Do With Anything?

Written by award-winning author Avi, What Do Fish Have to Do with Anything? is a collection of seven short stories for young readers and was first published in 1997. The stories feature preteen or early teen protagonists who must navigate difficult social or familial situations and undergo shifts in their understanding of moral dilemmas. Each story is set in mundane neighborhoods, schools, and family homes as the characters confront serious issues such as divorce, parental abandonment, pet loss, interpersonal cruelty, social isolation, and suicidal thoughts.

Over the years, Avi’s books have received many awards, including a Newbery award and several Newbery honors. He is known for his versatility across genres, and in this collection, he turns to realistic fiction with a darker, psychological edge, writing deliberately ambiguous stories that often end without an easy resolution. While the intended audiences are-middle grade and young adult readers, the stories carry a level of sophistication that has made the collection a frequent subject of classroom study and discussion.

This guide is based on the 1997 e-book edition as published by Candlewick Press.

Content Warnings: The source material and this guide feature depictions of death, suicide, unhoused characters, and bullying.

Plot Summaries

In the short story titled “What Do Fish Have to Do with Anything?,” Willie lives with his mother, Mrs. Markham, who has grown distant and unhappy since Willie’s father abandoned them both. When walking home from school, Willie becomes fascinated with an unhoused man on the street. His mother has warned him not to engage with the man, claiming that unhappiness is like an illness. Willie, however, longs to understand unhappiness and seeks to find the cure, so he befriends the man, gives him spare change, and shares cake with him. The man explains that the cure to unhappiness is understanding that “what a person needs is always more than they say” (18). When Mrs. Markham learns about Willie’s conversations, she calls the police, and the man is taken away. Willie angrily accuses his mother of being like a cave fish—an eyeless creature that has lived in darkness so long that it cannot see.

“The Goodness of Matt Kaizer” is narrated by Matt’s classmate, Marley, and follows Matt Kaizer, a boy who sees himself as “bad.” Matt thrives on dares and misbehavior, and these activities serve as the glue of Marley’s friend group. One dare leads Matt to the hospital to visit Mary Beth Bataky’s father, who is dying. To everyone’s shock, Mr. Bataky mistakes Matt for an angel and begs him for a blessing so that he can die “good.” This encounter shakes Matt deeply. Matt’s father, a minister, dares him to keep visiting Mr. Bataky. During these sessions, Mr. Bataky confesses the terrible things that he has done, and Matt begins to think of himself as good in comparison. Matt begins to dress more cleanly and to improve his behavior, but this shift alienates him from his friends.

In “Talk to Me,” protagonist Maria O’Sullivan is troubled by her brother Brian’s absence. Brian ran away from home after having fights with their parents, and now no one will discuss him. Maria begins receiving mysteriously silent phone calls every afternoon at 4 pm. Convinced that Brian might be the caller, she starts treating the unknown person as a confidant, sharing her stories and memories. This one-sided dialogue becomes her only outlet for processing her love for Brian and parsing out the gulf between her nuanced understanding of Brian and her parents’ perception of his behavior. When Maria’s parents announce that they are expecting a baby, Maria arranges to meet with the caller at a McDonalds, but no one shows up. Soon afterward, her family receives a letter explaining that the calls were an accidental telemarketing glitch. Maria decides to teach her soon-to-be-born sibling how to talk and communicate.

In “Teacher Tamer,” Gregory Martinez, a new kid at school with a reputation for being very smart, finds himself accused of throwing a spitball at his teacher, Mrs. Wessex. Gregory is innocent and knows that the culprit is a consistent troublemaker named Ryan. Though Gregory resents Mrs. Wessex, his status among his classmates rises as he gets victimized by the teacher. Gregory decides to get revenge on Ms. Wessex using firecrackers that he purchased from a local dealer. When Gregory sneaks into Mrs. Wessex’s house, he overhears her admitting that she deliberately singles Gregory out to help him gain popularity with his peers. She knows that Ryan would thrive on the attention that comes from getting in trouble. Likewise, she knows that if Gregory were to win a public admission of her favor, he would get bullied by his peers and would disavow his own intelligence to fit in with them. She is sad, tired, and hurt that the students seem to hate her. Moved by her hidden care, Gregory abandons his plan and instead praises her for being the best teacher he has ever had.

In “Pets,” Eve Hubbard adores her animals, showering them with love and attention. Over time, her pets die and must be buried in the garden. However, when her cats Angel and Shadow begin to act aggressively and fall ill, Eve finds herself consumed by guilt, grief, and the fear of losing them. After Angel is euthanized, Eve begins to believe that she sees Angel’s ghost haunting Shadow. When Shadow too grows sick and dies, both cats return as vengeful apparitions that haunt Eve, demanding food and attention from beyond the grave. Then Eve herself falls ill and is nearly consumed by the cats’ haunting presence. In a fevered dream (or perhaps a vision), the ghosts of her earlier pets, led by her beloved dog Chase, arrive to drive Angel and Shadow away. When Eve recovers, she decides that she no longer wants pets.

In “What’s Inside,” a seventh-grade narrator gains confidence by learning to make perfect wooden boxes in shop class. He makes two boxes for his parents, and they proudly display them in the house. However, during the holidays, the narrator’s troubled cousin, Danny, confesses to his despair and suicidal thoughts and shows the narrator a gun. Danny insists on playing a deadly game of chance by placing the gun in one of the boxes and choosing randomly to determine his fate. If he chooses the empty box, he will live. If he chooses the box with the gun, he will die by suicide. Terrified, the narrator hides the gun in his pocket instead, leaving Danny to open an empty box. After realizing that he will live, Danny begins to cry, and the narrator calls for help from their parents and families. The narrator reveals to his father that he hid the gun and made it impossible for Danny to choose death. The narrator’s father commends him for showing Danny a life of possibility.

In “Fortune Cookie,” Parker, who is almost 13, decides to use his birthday dinner as a stage to manipulate his divorced parents. Wanting to make them uncomfortable, he invites them both to dinner together, then stirs up conflict by provoking them about their financial struggles, responsibilities, and respective new partners. Parker enjoys the power of making his parents react and is especially satisfied to distress his father, whom he challenges to contribute more support. His mother quietly suffers through the dinner and eventually goes to the bathroom to cry privately. The night ends with Parker’s father storming out after a heated argument. In the car afterward, Parker admits that he doesn’t know what he was trying to achieve. Although he loves his father, he recognizes that his mother is the one who remains steadfast, even when he deliberately hurts her. When Parker opens his fortune cookie, it reads, “Many people will love you” (121). He breaks down in tears.