Thank You, Octopus by Darren Farrell

Hello readers!  Where in the world is Mrs Brown's Books you may ask? It's been a hectic spring for reasons too boring to mention but I'm happy to be back and ensconced once again in the land of picture book exploration.  My first choice out of the bag is the brilliant Thank You, Octopus by fellow North Carolinian Darren Farrell. The quality of the cover illustration prompted me to take this one off the shelf in a local bookstore and I only had to read a page before I was handing over money to take it home.  This one is really funny and E can't get enough of it.

One little boy is being cared for by a loving but overly mischievous octopus (think cheeky older sibling here). Octopus is trying to put the boy to bed without much success.  However, in a new twist it's the one in charge who's causing all the chaos. Octopus promises to  make the boy a nice warm bath ... but it turns out to be made of egg salad!  He offers to help him put on his pj's ... on the stature of liberty that is! From suggesting they read a favorite bedtime story (in robot language) to reassuring the boy that he's removed the monsters from under his bed (and stashed them in the closet) octopus is unstoppable when it comes to his bedtime antics.

The illustrations are lush matte color tones and the expressions on the boy's face are priceless.  He's so desperate to believe that the octopus means well. The boy goes along blindly with the octopus until he finally reaches the end of his tether and gives the octopus a taste of his own medicine.

We're reading this one constantly at the moment and running through the dialog taking turns playing the boy and the octopus.  I don't think we could get more interactive with a book, and with such playful illustrations it's a fun read all around.  For more on the talented Darren Farrell visit darren-farrell.com.