BEHOLD THE OCTOPUS!

A series of rhyming adjectives and colorful close-up representations introduce this eight-armed sea creature.

The author-illustrator team that produced the successful Countdown (2018) returns with a look at a remarkable, intelligent invertebrate. Slade’s two-level text is set directly on Gonzalez’s luminous illustrations of octopuses in action. The opening and closing spreads feature simple, descriptive sentences. On most of the other spreads, only a single word appears in larger type, accompanied by a paragraph in smaller type discussing relevant octopus behavior and traits and introducing one example from the roughly 300 octopus species. What distinguishes this title from similar ones for young readers is its suitability for reading aloud. The adjectives have a smooth, rhythmic quality: “hunting, building, gliding, changing, grasping, hiding. Luminous, dangerous, adventurous, and utterly tenacious!” The striking close-up artwork will show effectively to a group; older readers or more curious listeners will notice that the illustrations are specific to the examples described in the text. Slade covers feeding, anatomy, defense mechanisms, habitat, egg-laying, and life span of 12 different species including the familiar giant Pacific octopus, the mimic octopus, and the rare, deep-sea glowing sucker octopus, among other examples. In an afterword, the author adds even more information and includes photographs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An admirable, admiring introduction to an intriguing species.