Cover Image: What if an Octopus Followed Me Home?

What if an Octopus Followed Me Home?

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Member Reviews

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has cute illustrations and the story was fun.

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Slightly confusing for a children's picture book. Too much text given the intended reading age of 3-6 years and the 'message' of the story became confused part way through. The attempts to make the text rhyme in places also felt awkward and contrived and detracted from the story.

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“What if an octopus followed me home?” is highly imaginative and a funny take on having pets. The illustrations are touching and humorous. My students will love this story.

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Beautifully illustrated and imaginative Children’s Picture book. Definitely recommend this for Storytime at preschools, day cares, & kindergartens. WHAT IF AN OCTOPUS FOLLOWED ME HOME? by Pamela D. Beverly & illustrated by Dirceu Veiga was highly recommended.

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Story of a boy and his friend Octopus. Illustrations are good.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC

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This is a heartwarming story about a little boy, Julius, who comes home from school with an octopus attached to him... not only physically but emotionally as well. You know he is smitten when he has already named the little guy. He names him Mack.

His mom tells him, and correctly so, that the octopus cannot stay in the house because he is a sea creature... the end! Julius goes through a litany of reasons why Mack can stay, even throwing in the Golden Rule, " Do unto other's." Finally mom relents and agrees that Mack can stay the night. Julius and Mack are overjoyed.

The happy duo play games and enjoy each other's company immensely. Julius's mom suggests that Mack sleeps in the tub overnight which is arranged. In the morning he is transported to the splash pool in the yard as Julius heads off to school for the day. But will Mack be safe and healthy there for any length of time? Is this the right thing to do? Perhaps Julius is being selfish and wants a cool pet no matter what the consequences.

Poor Mack's health takes a turn for the worse forcing Julius to make a decision. Should he try to nurse Mack back to normal himself or should he find an environment where Mack can thrive, be healthy and have friends of his own kind to play with? What a hard choice when you want with all your heart to keep Mack as your very own.

The book emphasizes friendship, problem solving and the necessity of returning animals to their proper environment. The illustrations are clear, expressive and colourful enriching the text greatly. This book will be a great catalyst to open up conversations about your intentions versus the good and right thing that has to be done. Sometimes you have to put your own desires aside and think about the well-being ( and survival ) of others. I like the message very much.

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This story was sweet and cute. I read this along with my 1st grader and 3rd grader. We each took turns reading a page. This was perfect for my 1st grader to read almost completely alone. There were a handful of words he needed help with. I really liked the emphasis on befriending someone different than yourself. It really reinforced the innocence of children. It also included problem solving which is always a plus in my book. Work things out, think them through and figure out a way.

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While it is true that Octopuses have <a herf="https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/octopus-crawls-out-of-water-and-walks-on-land" target="_blank">escaped from their tanks</a>, quite a few times, I am not aware that any could survive quite as long as they do in this book, as they have to be wet, even when "walking" on land. But ok, I'll suspend my disbelief for this book. After all, there are stories all the time about unusual things.

I'll even suspend my disbelief that an octopus to "race" around with a child.

<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Screen-Shot-2018-12-23-at-6.20.45-PM-1010x1024.png" alt="Octopus followed me home" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4862" />

But as a Mom, I find it odd that his Mom let him keep the pet, and play with it as much as he did.

The whole story just seems off to me.

But, I'm sure that kids will love the idea of have an octopus to play with, and will enjoy this odd friendship.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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This is a wonderful and silly little picture book about caring for an octopus, of all things! Julius is excited when he is followed home by an octopus. He thinks he can keep him around by letting him play in the tub or his wading pool in the backyard. But as the octopus starts to not look so great, Julius realizes that this octopus belongs in the ocean. This could be a great conversation starter about what different animals need to be healthy and what animals make good pets. I found this book adorable!
Thank you to BookBuzz, Pamela D Beverly and NetGalley for this fun e-book, my opinions are my own. I plan to read it to my preschoolers later in the week!
www.colecampfireblog.com
LanaLCole@yahoo.com

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Julius has a new friend, Mack the octopus. Even though mom isn’t sure about letting Mack, stay she agrees to one overnight visit to see how it goes. They have a great time playing hide and seek, building with blocks and swimming in the bathtub.

When Julius goes to school the next day all he can do is think about his friend at home in the swimming pool. But something is wrong with Mack. He needs salt water, not water in a backyard pool.

Even though Julius loves Mack and Mack loves Julius, they both realize they need to do what is best for each other. That means they cannot live together but can still be friends.

Beverly’s delightful children’s book is perfect to teach children that it is great to be friends with others that are different. It will also reinforce thinking of the needs of other people or octopuses before themselves. Like all good children’s books, it is a great springboard for more discussions with your children.

I loved this book. The story is cute, yet has underlying values that all children need. The illustrations are colorful and cute. It is a book that is likely to be read over and over again, each time the child and reader will love it.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley and Buzzbooks in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Copyright © 2018 Laura Hartman

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This was a very sweet read about compassion, friendship and differences. My 4 year old thoroughly enjoyed this read with me. The illustrations were beautiful and articulated the story well.

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It is a good story in the sense that it can entertain children and it uses elements that they can easily identify from their lives. It also has an element of "surprise", because of the octopus. The only thing I would say objectively needs to be improved is what the mum says. Her dialogues sounded really unnatural and stale, but the rest of the book is okay.

I was really excited to read this book because of the unexpected storyline and the cheerful drawings. However, I am sad to say that this book wasn't for me. Perhaps it's been a long time since I last read a children's book, but I was expecting more from the plot. When reading the book I felt like certain ideas in the story misled me to believe there would be a deep and hidden meaning at the ending, but that simply wasn't there.

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Nice children's bedtime story about being a good friend. Teaches children that they cannot keep random stray octopi (that's plural for octopus right?) inside you house because of survival reasons and distraction. If said child did decide to bring home an octopus, 24 hour living arrangements can be made.

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What an adorable, warmhearted, and encouraging story! Every parent has anecdotes about "But he followed me home! Can I keep him?" In this case, he is a playful, friendly, octopus; but he can't live in a wading pool. Children will love this story; I certainly did.

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What would you do if an octopus followed you home!? Would you want to keep it? Would your parents let you keep it? This cute little story shows one little boy how sea creatures and humans both need different things to survive. The little boy in the story wants to ensure that his new pet has everything it needs, but there is still something missing..

We loved this book! It was cute and creative! Great for kids 3-6!

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The title was really intriguing and the idea interesting. The layout is not doing it to me as I would have loved to have the text on the images so that the child can see the action with the text at the same time. I think there is too much text compared to the number of images. Also, I did not like that much the end as I would prefer the Octopus to get back to the ocean instead of a zoo.

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This is a cute story of a boy and is friend Mack who is an octopus. Overall, I enjoyed the artwork, but found the story itself very wordy for a picture book. Plus there was an attempt at rhyming, but it didn't seem very consistent.

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