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!).

Art for Art's Sake! Arlo Draws An Octopus by Lori Mortenson

Arlo thinks octopuses are really cool. He decides to draw one! He's drawn houses and trucks and even his aunt's pet alligator! How hard can it be?

An octopus has a big round head and hardly any face. They have eight tentacles, all pretty much the same. Easy peasy! What could possibly go wrong?

ARLO PICKED UP A CRAYON. HE BEGAN TO DRAW. THE HEAD DID NOT LOOK LIKE A HEAD.

IT LOOKED LIKE A BIG SILLY HILL.

That should have been the easy part. The tentacles, eight of them, with all those suction cups, now that was the hard part. Arlo tries harder. but...

THEY LOOKED LIKE SQUIGGLY ROADS THAT WENT NOWHERE.

But Arlo refuses to be a quitter. Resolutely, he began to add the suction cups. Arghhh! Now they looked like stupid bubbles in the water!

"I HATE DRAWING OCTOPUSES!" ARLO SHOUTED.

He wadded up his drawing and threw it over his left shoulder. Rats! He can't even be a successful litterbug. He gets up dutifully to reclaim his trashed drawing, but when he opens it up, he finds an octopus artist has just tossed a pretty good likeness of him, right down to his favorite shirt. Meanwhile a purple octopus is perusing Arlo's sketch of him. He says it looks just like his favorite, Aunt Zillah!

It seems that good art lies in the eye of the beholder, in Lori Mortenson's just published Arlo Draws an Octopus (Abrams Books, 2021), and perhaps both young artists learn not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. After all, we know that artist Roy Sayegh's illustrations made the cut for this book. Maybe it's a good idea to get a second opinion! Says Booklist, "A playful, reassuring picture book."