Octavia's Great Escape
Operation Eight Arms
Octavia, the cleverest octopus in the aquarium, hears the sea calling her every night. Tomorrow morning she is being shipped off to sit in a shopping-mall window — so tonight she is breaking out, with the least likely crew in the world: a scaredy-cat pufferfish, a "speedy" sea turtle, and a crab who only walks sideways.
Read it free →Sneak peek: the first page
At the end of the long hall in the Harbor City Aquarium, there is a tank with a big number 8 on it. Who lives there? Who else? Octavia the octopus. (Octo means eight. She checked.)
By day, Octavia opens jars for the crowds. A jar with a lid? Two seconds. A jar inside a jar? Four. The kids clap. Octavia yawns.
She has eight arms, and each arm has a little brain of its own. Seven of them listen to her. One — Arm Number Seven — does whatever it likes, which is mostly grabbing stuff.
At night, through the window, Octavia hears the sea: shhhh... shhhh... An octopus has three hearts — and all three want to go home.
How the music works
Every few pages, the story pauses for a music moment that fits the scene: a lullaby, a chase, a spooky tune, a victory march. Your child plays a short piece on their own instrument (piano or keyboard, guitar, ukulele, recorder, harmonica, tongue drum, drums or darbuka) at exactly their level, rates how it went, and the next pieces adjust. Octavia's Great Escape has 8 music moments across 19 pages.