Also an Octopus: a meta picture book that illuminates story-writing for kids and shows them how stories begin as "a little bit of nothing" and how they take on a life of their own. The ukelele-playing octopus who serendipitously meets a band of rocket scientists who help him build something purple, shiny and totally awesome can attest to that. But what becomes of the octopus and his new contraption? That's up to the child reading this book, and the writer in him/her to imagine and decide. Also an Octopus will be fantastic for launching many lively discussions about the writing process with children and how ideas become words, how words become sentences and how sentences work together to form a narrative that propels an idea forward and brings it to life.
Also an Octopus is Maggie Tokuda-Hall's debut picture book, illustrated by Benji Davies and published by Candlewick Press.