Gentle Giant Octopus

The Giant octopus's tentacles can grow to 150 feet, but in this graceful work the deep-sea creature seems tender and vulnerable. Wallace (previously paired with Bostock for Think of an Eel) uses two types of narrative. Facts are set in wavy lines of text, running concurrently with a story about a mother octopus's gestation, parturition and death. The story brims with poetic turns of phrase: a Wolf eel ""darts from the shadows. His teeth strike like daggers. He rips off a tentacle. Then sinks like a nightmare deep into his den."" The mother octopus defends herself through escape (shooting backward ""by sucking in seawater and pumping it out""), camouflage (turning ""very pale or very dark within seconds"") and hiding (""Octopuses don't have any bones, and they can squeeze through the tiniest of holes""). Safe in her den, she lays eggs that ""hang from the roof like grapes on a string."" Bostock's thoughtfully composed watercolors are tactile, accurate and extremely attractive: rubbery tentacles undulate or creep on powerful suction cups; bubble-like babies swim up from their rock-bound nursery, out of which the mother's listless eye peers--their nursery will become her crypt. This seamless weave of text and illustration offers a welcome counterpoint to popular depictions (e.g., Verne's and others) of the octopus as deep-sea villain. Ages 5-8. (Oct.)