For educators

What it is for

This is a book for your child to read alone, maybe for the first time. Almost every word is short and spelled the way it sounds, and a few are common words your child learns by heart (the, is, has, you, what). Four longer words, octopus, hearts, taste and coconut, are on the Words to know page, each with a picture: read that page together first. Then let your child read to you, pointing to each word. When a word stops them, sound it out together, letter by letter; only for those four words, turn back to page 3 and its picture. Read it again tomorrow, and the day after: a book they know well is how a new reader gets quick. If your child wants more, Fold 2, Hello, Octopus!, tells the same facts as a picture book to read together.

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Talk about it

Questions the book asks its reader:

1. Can you see it?

Words

octopus

eight arms

hearts

They beat.

taste

by touch

coconut

a big nut

What it is for

Read it slowly and leave gaps for your child to fill: the counting, the sound words, the hunt for the hidden octopus. Each spread rests on facts from the series' checked fact bank. The notes on these two pages give them in plain words, with their sources, for when the questions start. A child starting to read alone can begin with Fold 1, Go, Octopus, Go!, and Fold 3, Octopus: Eight Arms, Three Hearts, tells the same facts to a child who reads on their own.

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Talk about it

Questions the book asks its reader:

1. Will you come to the sea with us?
2. Can you wave hello?
3. Can you wiggle your arms?
4. Can you count to three?
5. What does this shell taste like?
6. Can you make yourself small?

Words

This fold has no glossary or word list.

What it is for

Your child reads this book to you. Before you start, read the eight Words to know on page 3 together: they are the words the book needs before your child's phonics lessons reach them. Nearly every other word sounds out with first-grade phonics: short vowels, blends, sh, ch and th, and silent-e words. The reading pages use full-page pictures with one to three short sentences in a cream caption card. When a word stops them, sound it out together. If it is one of the eight Words to know, point back to it and its picture on page 3. The quiz on page 30 has its answers printed upside down. A child just starting to read can begin with Fold 1, Go, Octopus, Go! If your child wants more, Fold 4, Octopus: Escape Artist of the Sea, tells the same facts in more depth.

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Talk about it

From the book's quiz:

1. How many hearts does an octopus have?
2. What can an octopus taste with?
3. Does an octopus have bones?
4. What tube can an octopus jet water from?
5. What do some octopuses hide in?

Words

octopus

a soft sea animal with eight arms

arm

a long part an octopus uses to grab

heart

the body part that pumps blood

suckers

round cups on an octopus's arms

beak

the hard part of the mouth, where the arms meet

camouflage

colors and shapes that help an animal hide

siphon

a tube that water shoots out of

hatch

to come out of an egg

What it is for

Fold 4 is for children of about 10 to 12 who are reading on their own. Each chapter opens with a big picture and a few lines, then mixes short text with Wow! boxes, diagrams and questions from Mila and Omar, so a child can start anywhere. Harder words are in the glossary on page 37. Try the quiz on page 36 together, and read "How we know" on page 38: it shows how scientists found some of these things out, and which questions are still open. For an easier read, try Fold 3, Octopus: Eight Arms, Three Hearts; for more depth, Fold 5, Octopus: A Field Guide.

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Talk about it

From the book's quiz:

1. How many hearts does an octopus have?
2. What color is octopus blood when it carries oxygen?
3. What can an octopus's suckers do, as well as feel?
4. What are the tiny bags of color in octopus skin called?
5. Which octopus can pose as a lionfish?
6. Which octopus carries coconut shells as a shelter?

Words

beak

The sharp mouth part of an octopus. It is the only big hard part of its body.

chromatophore

A tiny, stretchy bag of color in octopus skin.

mantle

The round bag behind an octopus's eyes. It holds the hearts and gills.

oxygen

A gas in air and water that animals need.

papillae

Bumps and spikes an octopus can raise on its skin.

predator

An animal that hunts other animals for food.

siphon

The tube an octopus squirts water out of.

species

One kind of living thing.

What it is for

Fold 5 is a field guide for readers of twelve and up. Read it in order or open it anywhere: each chapter stands on its own. Labeled diagrams, species cards, Scientist spotlights on real studies and Try it boxes sit beside Mila's and Omar's field notes. Where scientists are still finding out, the book says so; ask which lines are observations and which are explanations. For an easier read, try Fold 4, Octopus: Escape Artist of the Sea; for more depth, Fold 6, Octopus, Unfolded.

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Talk about it

Questions the book asks its reader:

1. Can you run my quick check?
2. Quick test: how many tentacles does an octopus have?
3. Counting one a second, how long would you need?
4. It is blue when it carries oxygen, so what color is it once the oxygen is gone?
5. Big question for my notebook: how does an animal that is probably color-blind match colors so well?
6. Heard that octopuses have nine brains?

Words

active sleep

a short stage of sleep in lab octopuses when the skin flickers and the arms twitch

beak

the parrot-like mouthpart, the only large hard part of an octopus

blind spot

the place where nerve fibers cross our retina; octopuses have none

branchial hearts

the two hearts that push blood through the gills

cephalopods

octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and the nautilus

chromatophores

tiny sacs of pigment in the skin, opened by muscles

den

a hiding place where an octopus lives, such as a crack in the rocks or an empty shell

hadal zone

the ocean deeper than 6,000 meters

hectocotylus

the special arm a male uses to pass sperm to a female

hemocyanin

the copper-based protein that carries oxygen in octopus blood

ink sac

the pouch that makes and stores ink in most octopuses

mantle

the muscular body sac that holds the organs

What it is for

Fold 6 is long-form popular science for readers of twelve and up and for adults. Each chapter stands on its own. The notes give the published sources for every fact, and the text marks the science that is still being worked out. For a shorter way in, with labeled diagrams and a glossary, try Fold 5, Octopus: A Field Guide.

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Talk about it

Start from a chapter:

1. One Animal, Six Depths
2. A Body Without Bones
3. Three Hearts and Blue Blood
4. Where the Neurons Are
5. A Skin Wired to the Brain
6. Escape and Deception

Words

This fold has no glossary or word list.