Good Thing You're Not an Octopus!

It's a fine book but I bought it because my son loves anything sea animal. We were so disappointed after reading this book. The title is misleading. My four year old said "so it's not at all about an octopus?" It's a story about kids having to doing daily necessities compared to the way various animals do them. Example : "you don't like to ride in your car seat? It's a good thing you are not a kangaroo. If you were a baby kangaroo, you'd have to ride in your mother's pouch!" I suppose it's educational respects to various animals and has good use of repetitive words. Good for learning to read or word sight recognition.

We read this book every night since we got it.It is not a story, it has simple sentences very easy to follow. The illustrations are pretty and detailed. We have been playing to find things in every page and even did scavenger hunts based on the illustrations (there is one about the bathroom that has a lot of things to find).I have two very happy toddlers at bed time.

"You don't like to get dressed in the morning? It's a good thing you're not an octopus. If you were an octopus, you would have eight legs to put in your pants!"Every subject in this book starts out with "You don't like...?" I suppose that's fine for a kid who likes to air their own opinions quite a lot about what they like and don't like, but we usually try to read books that have a more positive feel to them. I still read this one to my children because it was rather clever and had a cute way of saying... "don't complain about it!"... but it's probably not one I'd particularly recommend. Not the kind that you'd really want to read more than ten times, so in my book, that's just not enough staying power to make it worth buying.

After the first few pages with the octopus, you get other animals that your little one could not care less about. Writing could also be a bit more inspirational - it feels like a book for younger kids that the art would imply.

I bought this mostly for my 4 year old who complains and procrastinates on most of the tasks in the book. There are a few she does readily, but that's the minority. She really enjoyed the book and understood the concepts. She is much better at cooperating now. She even jokes, about not being a such and such animal like in the book.I have a 3 year old who is the opposite. She loves to do all things to please Mommy and Daddy. She can be stubborn, but for the most part enjoys doing things she is asked to do. She likes to show Mommy and Daddy all the things she can do by herself. She takes requests from a totally different prespective than her sister. She loved this book. She laughed through the whole thing. She thought it was hilarious.I disagree with the 2 star reviewer who says it gave her child negative ideas. My 3 year old didn't take it that way at all. She saw it as entertaining, not her reality.

My students loved this book so much. They still request it to be read to them.

Really fun book! I purchased this for my granddaughter-to-be for her Octopus-themed Baby Shower. 😄

My three year old god daughter has me read this to her for the first time the other day and it has been on the top of the request list ever since. She loves the rhythmic style of the story and it's bright light-hearted style. The author has taken a simple premise and turned it into a playful romp that kids will absolutely love. And it has gotten her to get dressed and brush her teeth without as much fuss......read it to find out what I mean. Really fun book.

Such a cute story. All 4 of my kids loved it!