Inky’s Amazing Escape Excerpt

Inky’s Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home
by Sy Montgomery (author), and Amy Schimler-Safford (Illustrator)
Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (September 25, 2018)
ISBN: 978-1534401914

Inky's Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home

Read an Excerpt:

The baby octopus hatched out of an egg the size of a grain of rice.

His mother used her jet to blow him from her den out to the sea, along with his tiny octopus brothers and sisters.

Each octopus set out on a journey alone. They’re born to explore.

For weeks, the octopus rode the currents of the Pacific Ocean. He ate tiny scraps of food that floated by. He grew fast. Soon he needed bigger meals: clams, fish— and octopuses’ favorite, crabs. To find them, the little octopus had to explore.

He poked his slippery, bendy arms into every nook and cranny. Curious, he wondered: Might there be a tasty morsel here? What about over there? He probed. He pushed. He pulled. Sure enough, soon he found a yummy clam.

He used his strong suckers to pull the shell apart, and ate the clam for dinner.

Now the octopus was sleepy. How would he find a safe place to nap?

Curious, he searched among the coral. His slippery, bendy arms explored one hole after another. There! He found a crack that lead to a little cave. In went one, arm, two arms, four arms—eight.

Last of all, he squeezed in his squishy, squashy head. Goodnight!

In the morning, the curious octopus again went exploring. What would he find today?