Octopuses

By Sandra Markle

Book Overview

Describes the special abilities that octopuses have to help them survive and thrive in the warm coral reefs and the cold depths of the world's oceans.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822560631
• ISBN13: 9780822560630
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Lerner Publications
• Length: 39 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 11.2" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 6

Customer Reviews

The combination of excellent writing and stunning photography will draw even the most reluctant read

The octopus is a predator, but ocean going animals "such as sharks, seals, and dolphins" consider them to be a tasty snack. The octopus has several defense mechanisms that often thwart the efforts of these predators. The octopus is an "escape artist" and when it squirts out a large jet of ink it simply disappears while its predator is left wondering what all the commotion was about. Many like the blue-ringed octopus have unique ways of blending in with their environment. It can actually change its vibrant blue spotted skin to blend in with the ocean floor. Another octopus, the mimic octopus of Indonesia, can actually "put six tentacles down a hole and stretch out its other two tentacles in a way that make it look like a banded, venomous sea snake." The photograph of this unusual octopus is amazing! The octopus has several ways to avoid becoming a tasty snack, but is also a predator to be reckoned with. Its ability to camouflage itself is also handy when it comes to capturing other creatures. Whoops, that crab looks like a good lunch! Among octopuses you'll meet in this book are the southern star-eyed, the giant Pacific, the mimic of Indonesia, the southern keeled (Australia and New Zealand), the blue-ringed (Australia to Japan), the banded string-arm (Australia), and the amazing transparent glass octopus. You'll learn all kinds of things about the octopus from how it catches its prey to how it reproduces and raises its young. This is an amazing book, but I've read several by Sandra Markle before and was expecting nothing less than perfection, what is exactly what I found. It was very well written and researched and the photography was stunning. This combination will pull even the most reluctant reader along the bottom of the ocean floor following the life of the octopus. One of my favorite shots is not of an octopus, but the face shot of a seal looking for her lunch. This is one vibrant book of six in the "Animal Prey" series you might want to add to your library!

Eye Popping Pics

The photos in Octopuses are indeed eyepopping, so don't look at them too long if you don't want your eyes to pop. Octopi (as I like to call them) are intelligent, fascinating, even amazing creatures. Some people even keep them as pets though the octopus is high maintencance and has a relatively short lifespan. In this book the young reader is treated to engaging text to accompany the vivid and spectacular photos, many of them full page dazzlers. Students within a wide age span to whom I showed this book all showed an intense interest and curiosity in it. The book has no table of contents, but does have a rudimentary glossary in the back and a short index. If you know a reluctant middle school or late elementary grade reader, hand him or her this book. It very well could motivate some further reading.