Inky's Great Escape: The Incredible (and Mostly True) Story of an Octopus Escape

by Casey Lyall, Sebastia Serra (Illustrator)

Overview

Inky’s Incredible Idea for an Ingenious Escape.
Based on a true story, this tale follows a daring, Houdini-esque octopus as he performs his greatest escape act yet.

In April 2016, The New York Times published an article about an octopus named Inky who escaped from the National Aquarium of New Zealand through a drainpipe and into the sea. In this charming fictionalized account, Inky, worn out from his exciting life in the ocean, has retired to the aquarium. There he quietly plays cards, makes faces at the visitors, and regales his tankmate Blotchy with tales of his past adventures. Then Blotchy dares Inky to make one more great escape: out of their tank. Will Inky succeed?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454926351
Publisher:	Sterling Children's Books
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	639,776
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 18 Years

About the Author

Casey Lyall is a writer from Southwestern Ontario. She works at her local library where she runs a number of teen groups and waits for management to discover they’re actually paying her to have fun. She is the author of Howard Wallace P.I. and Shadow of a Pug: Howard Wallace P.I. 2 (both Sterling). You can find her on Twitter as @CKLyall and at caseylyall.com.
 
Sebastià Serra hails from Barcelona, Spain, where he studied Fine Arts at the Universitat de Barcelona. He is an award-winning illustrator whose work has appeared in magazines and on television. Sebastià has illustrated a number of picture books in Spain and in the US, including A Pirate’s Night Before Christmas and A Pirate’s Twelve Days of Christmas by Philip Yates. His work has also been displayed in exhibitions all over the world, including the US, Italy, Japan, China, and Korea.

Editorial Reviews

Lyall embellishes wildly on the story of Inky, who broke out of a New Zealand aquarium in 2016…With Technicolor flair, Serra's madcap cartoony illustrations rev up the story even more.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

“Few stories of animal escapades rival octopus escapes for mind-boggling fun. Lyall embellishes wildly on the story of Inky, who broke out of a New Zealand aquarium in 2016. This Inky is a raconteur and a patient opportunist who escapes on a dare from his tankmate, Blotchy. Inky’s physical feats are, of course, incredible: He makes himself “flat as a piece of seaweed,” then coils his body into a rope, slipping down the drain and out to the ocean. With Technicolor flair, Serra’s madcap cartoony illustrations rev up the story even more.” —The New York Times

From the Publisher

2017-08-27
A daring cephalopod makes history.Famed for his many escapes, an octopus named Inky, "retired to the local aquarium," performs one more to impress his friends. Slithering from his tank and past the other aquarium exhibits, he heads down a drain to the ocean. This fanciful story is based on a true octopus escape from a facility in New Zealand in 2016. Lyall anthropomorphizes her animals, giving her protagonist a propensity for storytelling and motivation for his great escape: a bet from his tank mate, Blotchy. Also, satisfyingly, though not accurately, she suggests that the escape artist occasionally returns to play cards and continue to regale his tank mate with his exploits. The text is set on digitally colored pencil-and-ink drawings, busy spreads showing a range of aquarium wildlife, depicted with large eyes and surprised expressions. There are also visitors and even a keeper, so distracted by the sound from his headphones he doesn't see the fleeing fugitive. Sadly, the illustrator has perpetuated the cartoon misconception that an octopus has eyes on the top of the sac that is its body, rather than on the head that is the center of a cephalopod. Divya Srinivasan gets it right in a similarly anthropomorphic Octopus Alone (2013). For reading aloud or reading alone, a joyful but misleading re-creation of a fabulous feat. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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