Cephalopods, real and imaginary, pop up in an array of literature, from Game of Thrones to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (in which a giant cephalopod attacks a submarine named for a cephalopod). H.P. Lovecraft’s all-powerful Cthulhu is a part-octopus-like god with tentacles, first appearing in 1928 in the creepy short story The Call of Cthulhu. The wicked witch in the film version of The Little Mermaid is Ursula, an octopus; and Finding Nemo features a pink flapjack octopus named Pearl. Germany’s late Paul the Octopus was famed for predicting the winners in international soccer matches.
Cephalopod Awareness Days come around every year from October 8-12. In fact, each of the days is devoted to a different type of cephalopod: October 8 is Octopus Day; the 9th is Nautilus Night; the 10th, Squid and Cuttlefish Day; the 11th celebrates the kraken and other legendary cephalopods; and the 12th is the day for cephalopods now gone, such as the extinct ammonites.
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CEPHALOPODS IN FICTION
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In Kevin Sherry’s I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (Dial, 2010), an electric-blue giant squid boasts that he’s bigger than everything in sight. Then he’s swallowed by a whale. (But he’s the biggest thing in the whale.) For ages 3-6. |
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Tao Nyeu’s Squid and Octopus (Dial, 2012) is a collection of four stories about a pair of quirky undersea friends (plus a larger caste of watery characters) who bicker about how best to keep tentacles warm (mittens or socks) and debate the fashion sense of wearing a cowboy boot on one’s head. For ages 4-7. |
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I love Jon Scieszka. I love Lane Smith. Their collaboration in Squids Will be Squids (Puffin, 2003) is a wacky and hilarious take on Aesopian fables. (Warning: there’s a really sad squid.) For ages 8-12. |
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In Julie Gardner Berry’s Splurch Academy (for Disruptive Boys) series – set in a boarding school taught by monsters – The Trouble with Squids (Grosset & Dunlap, 2007) finds the kids trying to escape via a hidden swimming pool that turns out to be populated by evil squids. For ages 8-12. |
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In Greg van Eekhout’s Kid vs. Squid (Bloomsbury, 2010), Thatcher Hill (the kid), sent to spend a summer helping his Uncle Griswold run the Museum of the Strange and Curious on an oceanside boardwalk , meets the mysterious Shoal (who pinches a witch’s head in a box) and becomes involved in the world of lost Atlantis. And there’s an evil squid. For ages 8-12. |
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Adam Blade’s Zepha the Monster Squid (Scholastic, 2008) is one of the Beast Quest series (Beast Quest #1: Ferno the Fire Dragon). (See here for the series in order.) Tom, the 12-year-old hero, is trying to release the beasts who once protected the land of Avantia from enchantment. For ages 8-12. |
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In Roland Smith’s adventure-packed Tentacles (Scholastic, 2011), Marty lives with his uncle, the famous cryptozoologist Travis Wolfe, and Travis’s daughter Grace. In this, the second of a series, all set off on board the Coelacanth in search of the giant squid. Also along for the ride: a chimpanzee, a trio of bottle-nosed dolphins, Laurel Lee – a circus acrobat turned anthropologist, and, of course, in pursuit, an unscrupulous villain. For ages 9-13. |
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Brian Kesinger’s Walking Your Octopus: A Guide to the Domesticated Cephalopod (Baby Tattoo Books, 2013) is a clever and hilarious instruction manual for octopus-owners., as Victorian-era Victoria Psismall copes with her pet octopus, Otto. For all ages. |
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Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – first translated into English in 1873 – is now available in many editions, including simplified versions for kids. The story of Captain Nemo, his submarine the Nautilus, and the fearsome kraken – giant squid? – never wears thin. The full text is available online for free here. |
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The Disney movie version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) stars James Mason and Kirk Douglas. |