I've always been deeply fascinated with the sea and its creatures. While researching my book, I was amazed to discover just how extraordinarily intelligent and sensitive octopuses are. This led to an enduring obsession with these fascinating animals and inspired a resolution: as much as I love octopus salad, I can’t bring myself to eat an animal capable of opening child-proof jars.
I devoured this biography of Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794–1871), the inventor of the modern aquarium, in one afternoon. Written by a marine biologist and cephalopod expert, the book is intended for young readers (ages 10–18), yet I found it immensely engaging as an adult. Jeanne revolutionized marine biology by creating the modern aquarium to observe sea creatures—particularly the argonaut octopus—in their natural environment, and she confirmed that argonauts craft their own shells.
I was fascinated by the obstacles she overcame—her career was overshadowed by sexism, betrayal from fellow scientists, and misfortune, including the loss of much of her work in a shipwreck. I also loved the historical details that explore the social, cultural, and scientific context of Jeanne’s time.
Jeanne Villepreux-Power was never expected to be a scientist. Born in 1794 in a French village more than 100 miles from the ocean, she pursued an improbable path that brought her to the island of Sicily. There, she took up natural history and solved the two-thousand-year-old mystery of how of the argonaut octopus gets its shell.
In an era when most research focused on dead specimens, Jeanne was determined to experiment on living animals. And to keep sea creatures alive for her studies, she had to invent a contraption to hold them―the aquarium. Her remarkable life story is told by…
This delightful book (a fantasy tale first published in 1960) was one of my kid’s favorite bedtime reads. I love Tomi Ungerer's drawings—they carry this lovely vintage vibe.
Emile is a heroic octopus who not only dazzles with his talents (like playing three instruments at the same time or working as a shape-shifting lifeguard) but also helps capture a gang of criminals. The story is quirky and it made me laugh every time I read it to my kids.
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Emile is an eight-legged hero who has twice as much courage and four times as many legs as most people - except, of course, other octopuses.
When deep-sea diver Captain Samovar is attacked by a ferocious shark, Emile comes to his aid. Grateful to his rescuer, the Captain invites him to stay at his home, where Emile sleeps in a bathtub full of salt water. Emile turns out to be a fantastic octopus: he is a gifted musician (able to play three instruments simultaneously) and a great lifeguard, teaching children to swim and saving people from drowning. One day, Emile…
Bold, funny, and shockingly honest, Ambidextrous is like no other memoir of 1950s urban childhood.
Picano appears to his parents and siblings to be a happy, cheerful eleven-year-old possessed of the remarkable talent of being able to draw beautifully and write fluently with either hand. But then he runs into…
This book was the first non-fiction book I read on octopuses back in 2016 (yes, it’s octopuses, not octopi!), and it started an obsession.
The book made me realize just how fascinating and brilliantly intelligent octopuses are. They can recognize you, much like a dog recognizes its owner. If they like you, they’ll let you pet them; if not, they might squirt water at you—these are just two of many fascinating facts told by Sy Montgomery, an exceptional non-fiction writer, in a lyrical voice. This book made me laugh, cry, and marvel in wonder. And it helped inspire my book!
'Sy Montgomery's The Soul of an Octopus does for the creature what Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk did for raptors' New Statesman 'Charming and moving...with extraordinary scientific research' Guardian 'An engaging work of natural science... There is clearly something about the octopus's weird beauty that fires the imaginations of explorers, scientists, writers' Daily Mail
In 2011 Sy Montgomery wrote a feature for Orion magazine entitled 'Deep Intellect' about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death. It went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since…
This picture book tells the true story of an octopus’s escape from a New Zealand aquarium in 2016. Inky made his way through a drainpipe and returned to the Pacific Ocean. I love how the author, Sy Montgomery, frames the story, highlighting that octopuses are natural explorers.
The narrative incorporates many of the octopus's unique superpowers, like their ability to change color, texture, and shape. I loved how this book celebrates the joy of discovery and the importance of curiosity. In the endnote, the author connects with the young readers by saying, “Both of you (meaning the octopus and the reader) are smart, curious creatures eager to discover what else is out there.” What a wonderful message!
"Montgomery's expertise and the gorgeous illustrations make this a fine purchase for libraries serving early elementary students." -School Library Journal
"The mixed-media illustrations make good use of dynamic spreads, color, and texture-perfect for a book on a master of camouflage. Montgomery seamlessly incorporates interesting facts about octopuses into the narrative." -Booklist
Learn all about Inky the Octopus, an international sensation known for escaping from the New Zealand aquarium in April 2016, in this fascinating picture book from National Book Award nominee and octopus expert Sy Montgomery.
Inky had been at the New Zealand aquarium since 2014 after being taken in…
This memoir chronicles the lives of three generations of women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel. The story begins in 1992 in an unfinished attic in Brooklyn as the author reads a notebook written by her grandmother nearly 100 years earlier. This sets her on a 30-year search…
The mystery of consciousness and the fascinating world of octopuses—two of my favorite topics—come together in this book. In the opening chapter, the author, a philosopher and scuba diver, declares, “Octopuses are the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien.”
The book delves into how octopuses evolved independently from vertebrates, leading to features like their decentralized nervous system—each arm functions as if it has its own brain alongside a central brain. This unique “design” makes octopuses an ideal subject for exploring the concept of consciousness.
The book often raises more questions than it answers—it occasionally left me feeling frustrated. However, as a philosophical work, this is perhaps fitting since the true nature of consciousness remains a mystery.
'Brilliant' Guardian
'Fascinating and often delightful' The Times
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE
What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?
In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself - a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared.
Tracking the mind's fitful development from unruly clumps of seaborne cells to…
Leo, an autistic young boy, finds it difficult to make sense of the world around him. He struggles to understand his classmates, and they, in turn, seem unable to understand him. But then, one day, Leo meets Maya at the aquarium. Maya is an octopus, and the more Leo learns about her, the more he thinks that perhaps he isn't alone in this world after all.
The animated film adaptation of Leo & The Octopus is currently in development.
This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Toronto…
On the run from her abusive husband, Kyra Smith hits the road. Destination unknown. With a dog she rescued in tow, she lands in the peaceful California mountain town of Gold Creek and is immediately befriended by an openhearted group of women who call themselves the Tattooed Ladies. They’re there…
