The sea creatures in Professor Brown’s aquarium have a problem. The professor has gone on sabbatical for a year and left the care of their tank to someone who does not have much interest in the job. The hapless assistant attaches a fifty gallon drum of food to the tank and leaves, presumably never to return. Will the fish (and crabs, shrimp, seahorses, etc.) have enough food to last the whole year? Some of them say no, while others argue that there is nothing to worry about.
Fish Tank is a parable. It can be used to draw parallels to human concerns (such as climate change, which is the author’s intent) and human behaviour. It’s meant to appeal to all ages and has a reading guide for teachers available from the author.
I expected Fish Tank to be sanctimonious and tedious, too focused on the “message” to be a good story. But it’s a fantastic story! The real genius of the book is that, though the parallels are easy to draw, the author keeps the story really about the aquarium. (It’s like the scene in Finding Nemo when all the sea creatures are in the dentist’s office,
