The Japanese edition of The Soul of the Octopus has hit the Ginza, and who is that on the cover, Anime-style, but the author herself sporting flowy Farrah Fawcett hair (1970s, go look it up).
Ośmiornica, Tintenfisch, 문어 (Mun-eo), たこ (Tako), 章鱼 (Zhāngyú), Poulpe, Oсьминог (Os’minog). That’s how to say octopus in all the languages that The Soul of an Octopus has been translated into: Polish, German, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French, and Russian.
Even Gumbo Limbo Sea Turtle Rescue’s mascot, Luna, is reading The Soul of an Octopus! Could The Soul of a Sea Turtle be next?
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is a joint venture of the City of Boca Raton, Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and Friends of Gumbo Limbo. Each year, more than 190,000 visit the 20-acre preserve on a barrier island and learn about sea turtles.
“You might think a book on cannibalism would be upsetting, but this one’s not. It’s refreshing,” writes Sy in her New York Times book review of Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt. Cannibalism, writes Sy, is a “jolly book” that is “full of surprising news.”
Amazon Adventure is a Junior Library Guild Selection. The Junior Library Guild is a book selection service serving many thousands of libraries, which rely on them to guide their book purchases for young readers. The Guild reviews books in advance of publication and select those they consider the best. Amazon Adventure will be published in July.
Octo Rising. That octopus book keeps swimming upward. The Soul of an Octopus is now at No. 4 on The New York Times Animals Bestseller list for January.
душа осьминога (Dusha os’minoga) – That’s Soul of an Octopus in Russian (or so says Google Translate). Sy’s Octo book will be published in Russia.
“Sy Montgomery’s books create an image of our collective ancestry,” says a review of three of Sy’s books posted by the Human Venture Community. “Why is this important? When we see humanity in all living beings we care about more than just our own species. No matter what other communities we belong to, we belong to two fundamental communities, life and humanity. Obligations to smaller communities, be it our social group or nation, can blind us to needs the greater community of life. If we connect our own process of becoming with humanity’s process of becoming, it will shift the way we prioritize and carry out our obligations. This is critical because the kind of learning and solutions we need for our civilizations greatest threats, need to be informed with all of life in mind.”
The review covers The Soul of an Octopus, Birdology, and Walking with The Great Apes. The Human Venture Community in Calgary, Alberta, is “committed to ongoing research and learning by exploring Human Learning Ecology,” which seeks to understand “the priorities, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors” that created the environmental crisis.
Octo Obama-rama. As a parting gift to President Obama, the famous Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, has sent him 10 books and it’s quite an interesting gathering, including a certain octo book. (They’ve also sent the incoming president a different set of books.)
Last December, Powell’s “invited customers to suggest books for President Obama and President-Elect Trump as they move into new roles. After hundreds of recommendations, the store chose 10 books each for the incoming and outgoing presidents ‘with a focus on informative, entertaining, and inspirational titles.’ The books are being sent in time for Inauguration Day,” says the store.
“In a note to both recipients, Powell’s CEO Miriam Sontz wrote: ‘All of us have great faith in the transformative nature of books — we are passionate about the impact reading can have on our personal lives and on the life of our country. Those of us in the book business are also optimists. We know that life will always present challenges and books will always be there to help us.’”
The 10 books for President Obama:
A Full Life by Jimmy Carter
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
My Beer Year by Lucy Burningham
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Goodbye Mr. President, we will miss you. And should you have any questions about octopuses, just pick up the Octo Hotline – you know, the phone with 8 buttons that changes colors and has tentacles – and call Sy.
My Sweet Octopus. That will be the Japanese title for The Soul of the Octopus to be published in February 2017. Or: 愛しのオクトパス――海の賢者が誘う意識と生命の神秘の世界. The translation of the subtitle is: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness and Life, Invited by the Intelligent Creature in the Sea. A very popular Japanese cartoonist, Chiisakobe O.C., has drawn the cover.
As 2016 ends, The Soul of an Octopus is on these lists of bestsellers at independent bookstores for the week ending December 25: #7 in New England, #9 in the Pacific Northwest, #10 in Southern California, #3 in Northern California, and #10 in the Mountains & Plains.
Forbes, the business magazine, has chosen The Soul of an Octopus as one of the 10 best popular science books for 2016.
An octopus walks into a movie… Sy received this report from friend and editor Phil Pochoda, reporting from a “grand Los Angeles theater” where he was seeing Jim Jarmusch’s new movie, Paterson: “Towards the end of the movie, the hero, after a distressing event, is wandering through a bookshelf of primarily poetry books (not least, William Carlos Williams’ Paterson, which book seems to underlie much of the plot and characters in the movie). But third from the end of the shelf is … Soul of an Octopus (though it’s hard to figure out why it would have been included). In any case, it felt good to see it there.” An octopus always dresses up a movie.
“Science is for Girls.” A MightyGirl.com says it is “the world’s largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls.” They have chosen a mighty girl who Sy knows: Temple Grandin. Sy’s book about Temple is now on Mighty Girl’s list of books about female scientists.
Books of the Year:
The Soul of an Octopus is at #20 for December on The New York Times Science book bestseller list.
The Great White Shark Scientist has been named as one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2016.
Delancyplace.com has chosen The Soul of an Octopus as one of its favorite books of 2016. Delancyplace.com delivers a daily book excerpt to its 290,000 email subscribers.
The Soul of an Octopus is one of this year’s top ten audio books on Libro.fm’s list of the bestselling audio books at indie bookstores. Sy read her book for that recording – but not, alas, at the wonderfully named Octopus Garden Sound Studio.
The National Science Teachers Association has named The Octopus Scientists one of the outstanding science books for students.
The Nonfiction Detectives – “Two intrepid librarians review the best nonfiction books for children” – have chosen The Great White Shark Scientist as one of the top books for 2016.
Go, pig, go! The Good Good Pig is now in its 16th printing. There are nearly 109,000 copies in print.
And in news of Octopodes, The Soul of an Octopus is on these lists of bestsellers at independent bookstores for the week ending December 4: #5 in New England, #7 in the Pacific Northwest, #5 in Southern California, #3 in Northern California, and #11 in the Mountains & Plains.
Q: “Did you know that octopi is not the plural of octopus?”
A: “I do know that because my wife just read a book called The Soul of An Octopus and now all she talks about is octopuses.”
They then discuss Inky the octopus’ escape from the aquarium tank: “Apparently they are incredibly smart. They just have very few venues in which to show their intelligence.”
“Yeah, if we lived underwater they would be overlords.”
“That’s right. They’d absolutely would be our overlords. One of the many reasons I refuse to live underwater.”
Club Book brings authors to the Twin City area. Sy visited in November. You can listen to the live event.
Sy’s octopuses are still swimming toward new friends. The Soul of an Octopus in #19 on The New York Times Science Bestseller list for November. And it’s on these lists of bestsellers at independent bookstores: #5 in New England, #4 in the Pacific Northwest, #4 in Northern California, and #10 in the Midwest.
The Micro Activist Connor Berryhill and his Dad entering Monterey Bay.
The Micro Activist says: “I can’t think of a single super hero that has as many abilities as one of these buggers! How about Star Wars then…Nope nothing so bizarre as an octopus in any of those movies either. Harry Potter, Lord of the rings? Nope and Nope!
“What really confuses me is how so many kids go crazy about these made up things when any of use can just go right out there and actually meet the strangest and coolest living alien that anyone could possibly imagine… ever!
“So to better answer that question, I guess I’d have to say my Mom and Dad agreed to help me make this video if it would “Get me to stop talking about them every frigging moment of every day!” Thanks for the help Dad and Mom! and I really will try to stop talking about them, as much…but they’re just Soooo Coool!!”
Sy loves the Micro Activist’s octo video.
Temple Grandin has been chosen as the book middle school students will be reading next year for One Book, One Philadelphia.
As of October 26, The Soul of an Octopus is on six regional independent bestseller lists: #1 in the Pacific Northwest, #8 in New England, #12 in the Mountains & Plains, #9 in the Midwest, #8 in Southern California, and #3 in Northern California. And #16 on The New York Times Science Bestseller List.
One Pig’s Odyssey. Tony Morrison, Annie Proulx and Homer. That’s what the staff and board at the New Hampshire Humanities are reading. Each year they post a list. This year’s list includes Beloved, Barkskins, The Odyssey, and other titles including The Good Good Pig.
Love & Happiness. Global Climate Change. Challenges of Race Relations. Octopuses have something to contribute! These are just 3 of the 30 classes at University of Idaho using The Soul of an Octopus for its Common Read Program. This October the entire freshman class at the University of Idaho is reading The Soul of an Octopus. On Sy’s whirlwind visit to campus she visited classes, met with fellow journalists, toured the entomology museum, hiked up Paradise Ridge to watch the sun rise over the Palouse Prairie, gave a public program…and even met a Giant Palouse earthworm (soon to star in its own Boston Globe column. Is the Hub ready for the G.P. E.?).
Another honor for The Soul of an Octopus: it has won the 2016 Orion Book Award. Part of the book first appeared in this fabulous magazine so Sy is particularly grateful to Orion’s editors.
The Soul of an Octopus has reached an auspicious number: its 8th printing.
As of October 2, The Soul of an Octopus is on four regional independent bestseller lists — #10 in New England, #13 in the Mountains & Plains, #6 in the Pacific Northwest, and #6 in Northern California.
Everyone is reading The Soul of an Octopus. Each year the Howe Library in Hanover, New Hampshire, picks one book for its month-long community event called “Everyone is Reading.” This year it’s all about octopuses in Hanover. In addition to book discussions and talks about the ocean, you can “craft your own octopus” like the handsome yarn octopus seen above.
The Soul of an Octopus is presently swimming about on two New York Times Bestseller Lists for October: It’s at #17 on the Science list and #5 on the Animals list. And it continues on the regional independent bookstore lists: #3 in New England (Watch out Sox!), #1 in the Pacific Northwest, #9 in Northern California and #7 on the Mountains and Plains list.
For the week of September 4, The Soul of an Octopus is on these bestseller lists:
#4 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#7 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#5 – New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
#13 – Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
For summer’s end, The Soul of an Octopus is living large on the bestseller lists. The week of August 31 finds the book at #3 on New England Independent Booksellers Association list, #8 on Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association list, #3 on the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association list, #8 on Southern California Independent Booksellers Association list, and #6 on the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association list.
For the week of August 12, The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#3 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#9 – Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
#3 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#10 – Southern California Independent Booksellers Association
#3 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
Beantown is Octo-Town. The Soul of an Octopus is number 3 on the Boston Globe’s Best Seller list for paperback nonfiction. Go Sox!
Sy’s octo book has swum into a new harbor. For the first time it appears on The New York Times Bestseller list of science books. It is at #20 for August. It’s also #5 on The New York Times Animals Bestseller list for August and it’s on these regional bestseller lists for the week of August 14: #6 –New England Independent Booksellers Association, #2 — Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, #3 — Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, and #3 – New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association.
Sy’s friend Sandy Waters sent this Programme of Events of the RMS Queen Elizabeth for Sunday, June 23, 1957, which she bought at an antiques show. The day’s schedule began with optional swimming starting at 7:30 a.m., and included films (Sy would have most enjoyed “Catching Sea Creatures” provided they put them back), Melody Time, BBC News Broadcast, orchestral selections, Bingo — and the night’s gala “Fancy Head-Dress Parade” at 10:30 p.m. followed by dancing. Sounds fancy, but they do all this on Jet Blue, too.
For the week of August 7 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#4 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#7 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
Kakapo Rescue inspires a genome project. Andrea Graves, a freelance science writer in New Zealand, recently wrote to Sy to tell her how her book on “the world’s strangest parrot” has “sparked off a wonderful series of events.” Jason Howard, a Duke University scientist, read Sy’s kakapo book to his daughter. Howard is sequencing avian genomes to “study the genetic basis of vocal learning.” After reading Sy’s book, he decided to sequence the Kakapo’s genome, and after much effort, got the samples he needed sent to the U.S.
“New Zealand science and conservation is hugely underfunded, so there is no way we could have afforded that in New Zealand,” writes Graves. “Jason’s decision to sequence the kakapo genome was crucial to it happening.” And it kicked off further research. “Now, via a crowd-funded project, New Zealanders have raised the money to sequence every single living adult kakapo, which is the first time ever that all the individuals in a species have been sequenced. Of course it helps that there aren’t many of them. There are likely to be huge conservation benefits to knowing the full sequence of all individuals, because they are fairly inbred as you can imagine.”
Andrea Graves concludes her note with further good news: There are now about twice as many kakapos on the island than there were when Sy wrote Kakapo Rescue in 2008.
JThe Soul of an Octopus has won the 2016 New England Book Award for Nonfiction. Sy thanks the members of the New England Independent Booksellers Association for choosing her book.
For the week of July 17 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#3 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#12 – Southern California Independent Booksellers Alliance
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#8 – New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
For the fourth month The Soul of an Octopus is on the New York Times Animals Best Seller list. It has moved up to #5 on the July list.
When Sy read at The Meetinghouse Readings in Canaan, NH, moderator Phil Pochoda introduced her. Phil is a retired publishing veteran (Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall Press, Pantheon Books, University of Michigan Press, and the University Press of New England, where he edited two books written by Sy’s husband, Howard Mansfield.)
Phil welcomed Sy with this introduction:
We are lucky tonight to have, in New Hampshire resident Sy Montgomery, thephil-pochoda only shaman that I know of, and certainly the only one I know personally. Sy, as shamans do, roves the earth relentlessly: there have been sightings of her from the Caribbean to Sunderbans (a non-mythical place, which hovers somewhere between India and Bangladesh, and where non-mythical tigers regularly hunt non-mythical humans) with lengthy touch-downs also in Cambodia, the Amazon, Tahiti, New Guinea, Mongolia, and Manitoba. On her journeys she communes at length with birds, mammals, and sea creatures — surreal ones such as pink dolphins, ground-dwelling Kakapo parrots, golden moon bears, giant tarantulas, white sharks, tree kangaroos, snow leopards, and the giant Cassowary bird, and, as we will hear much about tonight, octopuses (not octopii), but she is equally tight with domestic animals such as pigs, chickens, and cockatoos.
Happily for us, she does return to New Hampshire after each shamanic adventure, where in book after book, article after article, she tenderly, beautifully, and passionately relates these transforming and transcendent experiences at so many human/animal interfaces. And so sitting safely in our homes, we and our children and grandchildren get at least a second-hand version of her miraculous shamanic border crossings, enabling us also, if we consent, to be transported out of our normal bodies into truly magical realms where we too may be deeply affected and our attitudes and actions towards animals permanently altered….
I’m so pleased to welcome back to the Meetinghouse, our neighbor, our friend, our shaman, Sy Montgomery.
For the week of July 10 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#5 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#10 – Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
#9 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
A view from Sy’s trip to the Serengeti where she followed wildebeest on their migration, which is the largest migration on earth. Here Dr. Dick Estes, who has been studying wildebeests for more than 55 years, surveys the herd.
Octopus Obsession: A Quilted Book Review Cathy Perlmutter was, she says, “born with a desperate need to make stuff.” She makes “mostly quilts” and shows her wonderful quilts on her blog Geflitequilt. Her most recent quilts are her first book review. “A few weeks ago, I picked up the new book, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery, and could not put it down,” she writes. Above and below are Cathy’s two octo quilts. On her blog you can learn how to make these quilts. She concludes her quilted book review: “Read the Sy Montgomery book. You’ll love it!”
The Soul of an Octopus is a finalist for the New England Book Awards. Members of the New England Independent Booksellers Association will announce the winners later this summer.
Birdology has gone back to press for a new printing.
Octo book keeps on swimming. For the week of June 12 The Soul of an Octopus is on these regional bestseller lists:
#7 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#7 – Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
The Soul of an Octopus is in its 6th printing for the paperback and the 12th printing for the hardcover.
“Don’t Panic: More Sharks Are Lurking Near Massachusetts’ Busiest Beaches.” Sy speaks up for sharks on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio, WBUR’s Radio Boston and NHPR’s Word of Mouth.
“The great white shark gets a bad rap…. According to writer and naturalist Sy Montgomery, it’s time to set the record straight. ‘If you look at the numbers, your chances of being hurt by a great white shark, they’re actually one in 37 million,’ Montgomery said in an interview with Boston Public Radio Thursday. “Whereas your chances of being injured by a toaster or a toilet or a room freshener are much higher than that!”
“Citing a 1984-1987 study showing 1,600 New Yorkers suffering from bites from other humans, Montgomery stressed that shark attacks against humans pale in comparison. ‘If you’re not afraid to go into your bathroom where the deadly toilet is lurking, or into the kitchen where, oh no, there might be a malfunctioning toaster,’ she said, ‘you shouldn’t be afraid to go into the waters of the Cape.’”
Traveling in style. The New York Times asks various stylish designers, chefs, singers and artists, what they pack. “When it comes to travel, they focus on the same things: the right bag, clothing that doesn’t wilt during a long flight, and the best tech and audio gear” – and the right book. Andrew Smith, a Detroit car guy — executive director, global, Cadillac design – told the Times, on June 2, “I typically also take a couple of novels” And for this trip: “I just bought The Soul of an Octopus.” Of course. It’s the Cadillac of octopus books.
Number One in the Pacific Northwest. As of May 26, The Soul of an Octopus continues to be a popular choice for readers:
#1 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#7 – New England Independent Booksellers Association
#4 – Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#15 – New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
#6 – Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
And it is at number 7 on the New York Times Animals Best Seller list for June.
Shark! Sy’s newest book for young readers, The Great White Shark Scientist, is being greeted with great reviews:
As the Union Leader reported: Montgomery recently met Sy, who was captured in the wild just a few weeks before she came to New England Aquarium.
“She is perfect,” she said. “She is amazing.”
Montgomery offered the octopus some fish on a “grabber,” but the animal grabbed her arm instead. “She pulled and pulled me and almost pulled me in.” she said.
Then Sy the octopus “hosed” her with saltwater from her tank, a move that can either be hostile or playful, according to Montgomery’s book. “And after that, we just got down to petting each other,” she said. “She was sucking on me, letting me pet her head, and changing colors.”
Montgomery loved it.
She also loves the notion that folks will be singing Sy’s praises when they visit the aquarium’s new exhibit, “Tentacles.” “Thousands of people will be saying, ‘Sy is so beautiful,’ ‘Sy is so flexible,’ ‘Sy is so strong,” she said, laughing. “And so colorful!”
Go Pig Go! The paperback of The Good Good Pig is now in its 15th printing.
Arms Across America III. The Soul of an Octopus is on these Regional Independent Bestseller Lists for the week of May 15:
#5 – New England Independent Booksellers
#4 – Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#7 – Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
The paperback is now in its fifth printing.
Arms Across America II. The new paperback edition of The Soul of an Octopus returns to six regional best seller lists for early May:
#5 — New England Independent Booksellers Association
#11 — Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
#5 — Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#9 — Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
#7 — New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association
#10 — Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo is a grade 4-5 Exemplary Informational Text for the Common Core Standards.
Sy serves as affiliate faculty (nonfiction) for Southern New Hampshire University’s Master of Fine Arts in Fiction and Nonfiction program. Recently SNHU News interviewed Sy. Among the questions: What challenges you most as a writer and how do you overcome it? Her answer: “Too often I am intimidated by my own material. I think: I’m not good enough for this. I’ll screw it up! … But at these times, I don’t pretend to believe in myself. Instead, I believe in my teachers-the animals and people I met along the way. I trust in those teachers when I can’t trust in myself. I can’t believe in myself all the time (who can?) but I can always count on the animals, and they give me the strength and courage to go on through anything.”
Inky’s escape is the talk of the town. Inky may have left the building (the National Aquarium of New Zealand) but he’s still on our minds. The NewYorker.com called Sy to discuss octopus intelligence. Just what was Inky thinking? Hard to say, of course, but it doesn’t mean he wasn’t thinking. “It’s easy to project our own feelings onto animals—and that’s a mistake,” Sy told The New Yorker, “but it’s a worse mistake to think that we are up on some kind of pedestal and that animals can’t also think, feel, and know.”
The Soul of an Octopus has returned to the Best Seller list. The paperback debuted at number seven in March and in April it moved up a spot to number 6 on the New York Times Animals Best Seller list.
Arms Across America. The new paperback edition of The Soul of an Octopus is on several regional best seller lists:
#5 — New England Independent Booksellers Association
#4 — Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
#14 — Northern California Booksellers Association
#15 — Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
The paperback is already in its third printing.
The Consequences of Consciousness. Leslie Thatcher has interviewed Sy for Truthout. They talked about how we treat animals. From the interview: “The idea of the tree of life is a beautiful metaphor, but it’s not ladder-like; it doesn’t start in the dirty ground and end with us humans up above on the top with the angels. I personally don’t want to be on the top. It’s lonely there. I’d rather be embedded with the family. There are definitely ways of understanding the reality of the world that we humans cannot access with our senses. Other creatures, including birds, can see colors we can’t — and we know these colors are real. There are truths out there that have been discovered by other species that we may never discover and understand.”
Inky Escapes! The Octopus flees his New Zealand aquarium and swims to635961944895460363-Screen-Shot-2016-04-14-at-1.33.58-AM freedom. Sy was busy fielding questions from The Christian Science Monitor, Slate, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. USA Today, and Public Radio International. Here’s one story from PRI.org and USA Today:
A well-loved octopus named Inky escaped recently from the National Aquarium in New Zealand. Aquarium manager Rob Yarrall says the lid to the octopus’ tank was left slightly ajar after maintenance one night.
“He found this rather tempting, climbed out,” Yarrall says, “and he managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean, and off he went, and didn’t even leave us a message, just off and went!”
The escape happened earlier this year, and hit the New Zealand national press Tuesday.
“Octopuses are fabulous escape artists, and it’s absolutely not surprising that he saw an opportunity to explore and he took it.” said Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus.
According to Montgomery, octopus escapes from aquariums are common. “They can squeeze through the tiniest spaces and easily, a 100-pound octopus can squeeze through an opening the size of an orange,” Montgomery said.
The drain pipe in the New Zealand aquarium was about 6 inches wide. Octopuses can typically squeeze through an opening as small as their mouths, or beaks, as they are the only hard part of their body.
“Their muscles are less like our biceps than our tongues,” Montgomery said, “so they can flow in a way that, even if our muscles were detached from our bones, our muscles could not do.”
A slime covering Inky’s skin would have prevented it from drying out as he oozed from his tank to the drain that led to his freedom. And the suckers on his tentacles, which octopuses can use to taste food, would have also helped propel him across the floor. “Each sucker can lift an enormous amount of weight.” Montgomery said.
According to Montgomery, a 3-inch-diameter sucker on a giant Pacific octopus can lift 30 pounds.
Montgomery says octopuses get out of aquariums so frequently not because of their Houdini-like escape skills, nor because they’re lonely — they’re solitary creatures — but because they are generally super curious.
“It doesn’t mean that Inky was unhappy where he was,” Montgomery said. “Astronauts don’t go into outer space because they don’t like Earth, they just want to see what else is out there.”
Aquarium manager Yarrall says Inky was brought to the aquarium from a nearby reef just a few years ago, so it’s likely he’ll be able to survive in the wild. And while he didn’t leave a note, there was a different telltale sign that he did, indeed, escape and wasn’t stolen: a trail of water from his tank to that drainpipe of freedom.
The teachers and the students at the James Mastricola Upper Elementary School in Merrimack, New Hampshire, went all out, decorating with themes from Sy’s books. Here are two doors, above and below.
The Great White Shark Scientist is a Junior Library Guild Selection. The Junior Library Guild is a book selection service serving many thousands of libraries, which rely on them to guide their book purchases for young readers. The Guild reviews books in advance of publication and select those they consider the best.
China Bound. The China Ocean Press will be publishing the Chinese edition of The Soul of an Octopus.
