The Octopus Escapes

I listened to the audiobook while simultaneously flipping through the printed book (which has become my favourite way of enjoying books with illustrations, hearkening back to childhood when my parents would read to me). While the narration is good, the artwork is fantastic and the pictures are definitely the best part. The story starts off great, but then sort of fizzles out at the end.

The octopus is happy in his undersea cave until one day, a diver captures him and takes him to live in an aquarium. The humans give him food and tests that look like toys. But every day is the same, and the octopus soon tires of captive life. And so, under the cover of darkness, he makes his daring escape...

Lovely, informative, beautiful with a good message to let wild animals remain wild. My favorite illustrative spread is when the octopus is hanging part-way off the dock with a ferris wheel lit up in the night.

A bright, red-orange octopus loves his life in the ocean, and when he is scooped up and deposited in an aquarium, he plots his escape back home.