Octavia and Her Purple Ink Cloud

Physical & Behavioral Adaptation

by Donna Rathmell, Doreen Rathmell, Connie McLennan (Illustrator)

Octavia Octopus and her sea-animal friends love playing camouflage games to practice how they would hide from a big, hungry creature. Octavia, however, just cannot seem to get her colors right when she tries to shoot her purple ink cloud. What happens when the big, hungry shark shows up looking for his dinner? This creative book introduces basic colors along with the camouflage techniques of various sea animals a great introduction to marine biology!

The For Creative Minds educational section includes fun facts about octopuses and animal camouflage and protection. The craft uses primary colors (paint or tissue paper) to help children learn about blending colors. This fictional story includes a 3-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 27-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. Octavia and Her Purple Ink Cloud is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers. The Spanish translation supports ELL and dual-language programs.

Silver Mom's Choice Award

Spanish Edition
Octavia y su nube de tinta morada

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2006

Reviews

[Karen Oldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read this with my early reader. Beautiful illustrations. Cute story that really reinforces practicing. And just repetitive enough to help reinforce some sight words and make a young reader more confident.
It would be a great addition to colors lessons as well, and in the back of the book are some fun facts about aquatic life.
Entertaining, pretty and educational!

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

octopus, defense mechanisms

[Lyzzibug ~Still Breathing~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4 yr old loves anything sea creature related so this was a given hit. After reading it he absolutely loved it! He interactively started trying to guess what color Octavia’s ink would be next.

[Chels]

Great telling of how sea creatures protect themselves and color recognition

[Susan Krafcheck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for kids to learn adaptations, food chain, colors, and animals of the sea!

[Rochelle Sondae · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two books I read today were such a huge hit that this one fell a little short. It is a great book with wonderful illustrations and lots of information it just wasn't as exciting as the other two we read. The toddler reviewer loved the kelp and coral on nearly every page and was fascinated by the lead character.

[Brindi Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

colorful sea theme

[Dolores · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this would make a nice addition to a color storytime.

[Library Lady Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond the story of persistence I really enjoy the colors and illustration style in this book.

[Pam]

I used this book for the illustrations in an art lesson on sea creatures. The kids liked the pictures and it gave them ideas for different animals to draw. We didn't read it, but the story looks cute. It includes a fact about how each animal Octavia encounters in the story uses camouflage and there are fun facts in the back of the book.

[Terry]

We have a review at the Reading Tub.