Houdinipus: The Octopus Escapes by Maile Meloy

THE OCTOPUS WAS HAPPY IN HIS CAVE.

The view is one of a kind. Colorful fish swim lazily or dart around, some in schools and some solo. Jellyfish and starfish and mussels are visible from his door. Chilly waves breeze by and some tumble around him and leave messy sand for him to sweep out. Crabs come by for dinner. Everything is great in his life, until...

...something odd floats inside his cave. It's a glove, and he takes it for his own. And since it's empty, he slips inside of it to get out of sight.

BIG MISTAKE!

An arm with five fingers grabs the glove, and Octopus soon finds himself in a tank inside a big glass building called an aquarium. A human with a clipboard stares at him.

SAD GRAY SHARKS WERE IN GLASS HOUSES OF THEIR OWN.

THE HUMANS GAVE HIM TESTS THAT LOOKED LIKE TOYS. THEY TAUGHT HIM TO TAKE PICTURES.

But the octopus missed his cave and all the different fish and the starfish and mussels. He missed everything being different every day.

HE TRIED TO TELL THE HUMAN HE WAS BORED.

But when she doesn't seem to understand, Octopus decided to escape. That night Octopus pushed open the top of his little tank and crawled away.

HE TOOK ONE PICTURE SO THEY WOULDN'T WORRY. HE SQUEEZED UNDER THE DOOR AND DROPPED...

Off the pier he fell into the ocean, his ocean, and swam and swam until he came to...

HIS CAVE.

Octopus hadn't thought his home was special until he was taken away to be studied in an aquarium, but in Maile Meloy's charming "no-place-like-home" story, Octopus uses his smarts and his shape-changing skills to return to his home, sweet home, in The Octopus Escapes (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2021), illustrated in beautiful vibrant paintings by Felecita Sala. Her sly red octopus helps show young readers how intelligent and dexterous octopi can be in this nature story, based on the achievements of real octopi in recent aquarium studies. For more of those great escapes that would make Harry Houdini jealous, see Inky the Octopus: The Official Story of One Brave Octopus' Daring Escape (Includes Marine Biology Facts for Fun Early Learning!).

Aquarium Anxieties! Fancy Nancy: Peanut Butter and Jellyfish (I-Can-Read) K by Jane O'Connor

With summer vacations in view, May is a big month for field trips, and kids who have a class field trip to an aquarium are lucky, but... not all the sea creatures look cuddly and some aren't exactly cute! And in this easy reader, author Jane O'Connor and her customary illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser have Fancy Nancy almost have an uncommon meltdown when she confronts the several cases of a particularly unusual species.

Fancy Nancy likes the sparkly, snazzy, and spectacular tropical fish. Their colors are varied, their patterns are pretty, and with trailing, diaphanous fancy fins and elegant shapes, they are what Nancy calls "tres magnifique!"

But when Nancy, her best friend Bree, and their friends move on through the aquarium, Bree pulls Nancy toward one case that she thinks Nancy is going to love. The jellies' many colors and their undulating mantles are almost mesmerizing as they swim along. But Nancy has another reaction when she sees those trailing tentacles:

"C'est terrible!"

In Jane O'Connor's Fancy Nancy: Peanut Butter and Jellyfish (I Can Read Level 1) (HarperCollins), the usual ebullient Nancy can't bear to look at the jellies. But as usual, her teacher Ms. Glass knows just what to do. Artist Robin Preiss Glasser outdoes herself depicting the denizens of the deep at the aquarium and Nancy rises to the occasion. This book makes a perfect read-aloud to prep students for a field trip to the aquarium, and its controlled vocabulary works for early primary readers to practice solo reading skills.