This illustrated middle grade novel sends a girl and her adorable, extradimensional octopus on a collision course with the climate apocalypse.

Aspiring scientist Miri Su is excited for her school’s field trip to Vanguard, the pioneering biotech lab at the forefront of saving the world’s soon-to-be-extinct trees. But the trip goes sideways when she discovers a strange, tentacled creature with big human eyes who . . . seems to need help?

She can’t resist rescuing (maybe kidnapping) it and taking it home. As Miri and her friends learn more about the Squid, they realize it is much more powerful, and maybe more dangerous, than she could have ever imagined. . . . In fact, it’s an extra-dimensional god prophesied to bring about the end of the world.

Told in a mix of prose, comics, and documents, Miri and the Squid combines powerful ecological themes, zany twists on cosmic horror, and a heart bigger than the Great Old One to show readers how to look at the world with curiosity and wonder instead of fear and greed. 

About the Author:

Susan Tan currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts, and teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she studied children’s literature. She is the author of the Cilla Lee-Jenkins and the Pets Rule! series.