The Incredible Octopus - Erin Spencer - ★★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Erin Spencer
GENRE: Children's Nonfiction, Animals
PUBLICATION DATE: April 16, 2024
RATING: 4.5 stars

In a Nutshell: An informative encyclopaedia about everything connected to the magnificent octopus. Amazing facts, stunning photographs. Great for little and not-so-little animal lovers.


Octopuses are fascinating – no two ways about it. So it isn’t surprising that an entire 80-page book can be written on just octopuses.

There are various species of octopuses – almost 300 – and also related cephalopods such as squid, cuttlefish, and nautiluses. The book highlights interesting facts about all of these, with the maximum focus obviously being on the titular animal.

The information is classified into neat sections, covering topics such as anatomy, survival mechanisms, special octopus species, and even general facts such as octopuses in human lore. There are also some fun tidbits about octopuses and the games they love to play. (I was a bit sad to see that Paul the Octopus wasn’t mentioned; surely he has earned a place in the ‘Famous Octopuses’ list with his accurate guesstimates during the international football matches!) There is a glossary at the end and also a detailed list of resources kids can use to learn more about octopuses.

I especially loved the three interviews at the end of the book. These are conversations with professionals who work with or interact with octopuses as a part of their job. Not a feature I have seen so far in animal books – such an enlightening addition! Also appreciate that two of these three professionals were women scientists – Yay for FemSTEM!

The page layout is like that of an encyclopaedia, with 3-5 paras of text on many pages, but with a major chunk of the page space being dedicated to photographs and their accompanying captions, which contain interesting facts about the animal in the pic. While the language is fairly easy to kids who are keen on animals, the formatting and page structure makes it suitable to readers aged 8+.

The trivia in the book is mindboggling! In fact, the book begins with an intriguing ‘Did you Know?’ section that will directly spur the reader to learn more about astounding octopuses. I am anyway fond of animal trivia, so some of the information was already known to me. But I didn’t expect to learn so many new facts from this book. (I am not sharing any of these with you as I want you to read the book!)

I love that actual photos have been used to illustrate the book. Animal books are always so much better with real photos as artificial graphics don’t convey the beauty of the animals effectively. This makes the physical copy of the book a must-have.

All in all, a wonderful option for little animal lovers. This would make for an informative and entertaining resource in classroom libraries as well. Let’s not forget that it would also be a great way for adult animal lovers to know more about the incredible octopus.

My thanks to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Incredible Octopus”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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