Hello, friends! We’re back from vacation with a brand new review! Today’s book is Inky’s Great Escape: The Incredible And (Mostly) True Story Of An Octopus Escape, written by Casey Lyall and illustrated by Sebastià Serra, a delightful tale of a daring eight-armed escape artist.

Inky is well-known as an escape artist, the greatest of the seven seas. After a life of thrilling escapes, Inky finds that the sea offers him no more challenges, and decides to retire to an aquarium to live in comfort. There he becomes friends with his tankmate, another octopus named Blotchy, and regales him with stories of his exploits. Blotchy likes his friend, but finds his stories and claims a bit far-fetched. He challenges Inky to showcase his skills, betting that Inky can’t break out of their tank. Inky accepts, and even ups the ante: he’ll break out of the whole aquarium! The daring cephalopod plans his jailbreak meticulously, and just as Blotchy is beginning to think his pal is all talk, the perfect opportunity arises… and the escape is on!

Hilarious and adorable. Loosely based on a real incident at a New Zealand aquarium, Inky’s story has been anthropomorphized here. This gives both octopuses voices and motivations for the infamous escape, ones that are humorous and engaging for little ones. There’s a small amount of description of the incredible biological features that allow octopuses to be such master escape artists – though I wish there had been more, to be honest – and the ending introduces a bit of fantasy, but is still heartwarming and sweet. The bright, energetic illustrations are filled with adorable sea creatures that JJ loved, the length was good, and overall this was just an enjoyable read. We can definitely recommend this for any fellow fans of marine life, and it’s Baby Bookworm approved!