THE OCTOPUS ESCAPES

Captured and confined for display to visitors in an aquarium, an octopus tires of his unvarying routine there and escapes to return to the ocean home he loves.

This satisfying home-away-home narrative imagines life from an octopus’s perspective. The story begins and ends in his comfortable cave, where he can watch sea creatures going about their business and feel the variety of water currents. His love for hiding in small spaces leads to capture. He’s bored in his new home in a “glass house that wasn’t a cave.” For entertainment, he’s given manipulatives, and the food is regular but unvarying—and certainly no challenge to catch. He’s taught to take pictures of and with the aquarium visitors. With no good way to communicate his feelings to his keeper, he leaves, slithering out of his tank and under a door to a convenient pier from which he can return to the water—and, after a long swim, to his home. The relatively simple text is nicely interwoven with cheerful illustrations, sometimes set on spreads, sometimes interrupted with vignettes, and sometimes on a page opposite a full-bleed image. It would read and show well to a group. This effort to see the world from the viewpoint of a captive species reflects actual experiences of some octopuses resident in New Zealand aquariums.

Offers an opportunity for conversation with young readers about the roles of zoos and aquariums.