My Life in the Fish Tank

About the Book:

When twelve-year-old Zinnia Manning’s older brother, Gabriel, is diagnosed with a mental illness, their family’s world is turned upside down. Mom and Dad want Zinny, her sixteen-year-old sister, Scarlett, and her eight-year-old brother, Aiden, to keep Gabriel’s condition “private”—and to Zinny that sounds the same as “secret.” Which means she can’t talk about it to her two best friends, who don’t understand why Zinny keeps pushing them away, and turning everything into a joke.

It also means she can’t talk about it during Lunch Club, a group run by the school guidance counselor. How did Zinny get stuck in this weird club, anyway? She certainly doesn’t have anything in common with these kids.— Even if she did, she’d never betray her family’s secret.

The only good thing about school is science class, where cool teacher Ms. Molina has them doing experiments on crayfish. But when Zinny has the chance to attend a dream marine biology program for the summer, she doesn’t know what to do. How can Zinny move forward when Gabriel— and really, her whole family—still needs her help?

From the acclaimed author of Maybe He Just Likes You and Halfway Normal comes a powerful and moving story of learning how to grow, change, and survive.

Honors and Lists:

• A Junior Library Guild selection
• A 2021 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year (ages 9-12)
• 2024 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award/Illinois Children’s Choice Award nominee
• 2023-2024 Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award (Grades 6-8) nominee
• 2022 Texas Lone Star Annotated List
• Vermont’s 2021-2022 Golden Dome Book Award (formerly Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award)
• Kansas NEA Reading Circle List Starred Junior Title
• A Mighty Girl’s 2020 Books of the Year
• Pernille Ripp’s Favorite Reads of 2020
• A 2020 Cybils nominee (Middle Grade Fiction)
• Anderson’s Book Shop Mock Newbery 2021

Press:

• School Library Journal: “Abnormal Standard Time: Barbara Dee’s Message to Kids Living Through a Pandemic”
• Op-ed for School Library Journal: Abnormal Standard Time: Barbara Dee’s Message to Kids Living Through a Pandemic
• Cover reveal on Nerdy Book Club