Amazing story of Zinnia and how she learns to deal with family issues, friends and her feelings. The theme of mental illness is so poignantly addressed. Loved this story! On my "to purchase" list!!

This middle grade book was exactly what I needed right now, and I think it has the potential to be exactly what a good deal of other people need, too! Books should help us relate and understand the human mind and human emotions as well as our relationships with one another. My Life in the Fish Tank does just this. It was well written, hard to put down, and it made me connect with all of the characters, even the secondary characters/smaller roles. It had a perfect mix of being serious and deep and allowing the reader to learn about life without neglecting a sense of humor. Watching characters build new friendships and recover strained friendships as well as strengthen family relationships leaves the reader with a sense of hope. It felt very realistic in many ways including in that each person can have their own unique response to situations. I’m really glad this book exists!

I sent the wrong feedback. I will update this one shortly. I still must read the book.....................................................................................................................

In My Life In The Fish Tank, the reader gets to meet twelve year old Zinnia ( Zinny )Manning. Zinnia's life is pretty normal, life at home until something serious happens with her older brother Gabriel. One day her parents get a call that Gabriel was involved in a car accident and is in hospital, but there is something secretive about what happens afterward, when her parents reveal to Zinny and her sixteen-year-old sister, Scarlett, and her eight-year-old brother, Aiden, that Gabriel has been admitted to a mental hospital because his behavior on college and after the incident was wild and strange, and now it has been found out that Gabriel is bipolar. Her parents want to keep this as private as possible. Which means Zinny can't talk about it with her two best friends, who don't have a clue what is going on and why Zinny is acting this way.
Without realizing it too much, she is pushing her two best friends away because of what is happening at home, and it get's noticed by her school teacher. One teacher, Mr. Patrick, also the guidance counselor invites her to join The Lunch Club, a club for kids who have problems at home or have no or little friends at school. But she thinks it is just a club for weird kids, it isn't where she belong right, or because that her brother is crazy they might thing she is weird too?

She finds the place where she loves to be though in Mrs. Molina's class, her science teacher. Mrs. Moline feeds her interest in planting some seeds that she can grow in her own garden, which makes Zinny connect again with her mom who has been absent her life because of Gabriel, and starts a project on crayfish with the class.Mrs. Molina also supports Zinny to sign up for a marine biology summer camp. But there is so much happening at home with Gabriel and her parents who have their hands and minds fulltime on it, will Zinny be even able to attend? And will her life at home, and the health of her brother, ever be normal again?

As in her previous books, Barbara Dee does an amazing good job making serious topics understandable in her books for young readers. In this book the serious topic the main character has to deal with is mental illness of a family member and the impact it has on a family and school life. Zinny's life changes just in one minute, and it is hard for her and her parents on figuring how to deal with the whole situation. Is it better to talk about it, or to keep it secret? This is a topic many families in the same situation deal with. And as a twelve year old, how do you talk with your friends about it, or is it better not to talk at all? Zinny does the last, and altough both choices has some pro's and cons, she almost loses her friends with not opening up to them, out of anxiety perhaps that Gabriel's situation it might backlash on her, which happens sadly in real life. It is lucky for Zinny though that she makes some new friends in the lunch club and finds a place where she belongs at Mrs. Molina's class.
It was interesting and impressive to read how Zinny and her family dealth with it all, and how during the story they started to find a little beginning way to cope, with the help of family therapy, and how in the end, things started to look a little better for Gabriel and how that impacted Zinny and the family for the better. It was beautifully written and everything was made perfectly understandable for young readers, and it was also very realistic. Hat off to Barbara Dee for another amazing great new book!!!

5 stars
Growing up, I read and reread Judy Blume’s Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret and Deenie. I saw myself in those characters and it helped me to process the big feelings of my preteen self. This book will do that for today’s middle grade reader. I have yet to have read a book with preteens and mental illness of a teen. Middle grader writers continue to impress me with their willingness to write for an audience that needs them. This story line is one that I have yet to read in middle grade novels. However, the story will appeal to readers of all backgounds.
This is my second book by Barbara Dee and she knocks it out of the park again.

I received this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

A single phone call turns twelve-year-old Zinny's live on end. Her older brother Gabriel was in a car accident, but though his injuries were minor, there seems to be something more keeping him in the hospital. When their parents reveal that Gabriel has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, they ask Zinny and her siblings to keep Gabriel's story private as he heals. What Zinny discovers, though, is that Gabriel isn't the only one who has to figure out how to live with his diagnosis.

I really enjoyed this book. Zinny is a sympathetic middle schooler with realistic feelings. Her reluctant participation in Lunch Group, her feelings toward her older sister, and willingness to step in to help her little brother all rang true. Mental illness still carries with it a stigma for many, and even for the most supportive, there is a fine line between being respectful of someone's privacy, and keeping a secret. Though there will undoubtedly be readers for whom this situation is all too real, I hope many more will find in this book an opportunity to learn a little more, and to opt for a little more compassion.

With My Life in a Fish Tank, Barbara Dee continues to reach readers through lovable characters and topics that are real, sometimes very real to the reader. Dee's use of well-crafted, multiple story lines during Zinny and her family's journey through her older bother's bipolar disorder diagnosis keeps the reader moving along with ease. The ending speaks the truth that mental illness issues are not "solved", but that is OK. All people, including Zinny, are evolving, learning, changing and adapting just like Clawed.

As a side note, my younger bother has been living with bipolar disorder for 40+ year. I wish a story like this would have been available to me when I was Zinny's age.

I give this book 5 stars! Barbara Dee has a way of taking complex, mature topics and making them accessible, appropriate and engaging for middle grades students. In this novel, she skillfully addresses mental illness and the impact it has on families, specifically a middle grades girl, Zinny. Throughout the novel, Zinny grapples with the new information that her brother has bi-polar disorder and how to face her feelings when her parents are asking her to keep her brothers’ illness a secret. Dee uses flashbacks to illustrate Zinny’s changing family dynamics, her relationship with her brother and complex changing friendships. Ultimately Zinny learns the value of true friends, how helpful it is to share her feelings with trusted adults and peers and mental illness is not shameful. This book would be especially helpful for anyone who is dealing with mental illness themselves or knows someone who is. It would help them to have words to express is going on and reinforce that mental illness, like a physical illness is nothing that should cause shame. All middle grades students would benefit from the valuable lessons about humanity illustrated in this book as well as be engaged with the plot and relatable characters. I have already preordered this book and encourage you to do so as well. It would be perfect for any 5th-8th classroom library and would also be beneficial for counselors to read and have on their shelves to recommended to students who might specifically relate.