NPR Best Book of 2018, Bank Street List for Best Children’s Books of 2019, Named to the Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher List, Maine’s Student Book Award List, Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Award List, Rhode Island Middle School Book Award 2020 List, 2020 Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award Nominee, 2021 South Carolina Junior Book Award Nominee, 2020-2021 Truman Award (Missouri) Nominee, Middle School … School Virginia Readers’ Choice Titles for 2020–2021, Charlie May Simon Award 2020–2021 List, South Carolina Book Awards Nominee, 2020–2021.
Some people can do their homework. Some people get to have crushes on boys. Some people have other things they’ve got to do.
Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there’s Lenny, her mom’s boyfriend—they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer.
At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend Fuchsia has her own issues, and since they’re in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it’s best if no one notices them.
Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus: eight arms to do eight things at once. Incredible camouflage ability and steady, unblinking vision. Powerful protective defenses.
Unfortunately, she’s not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate club. Even though Zoey resists participating, debate ultimately leads her to see things in a new way: her mom’s relationship with Lenny, Fuchsia’s situation, and her own place in this town of people who think they’re better than her. Can Zoey find the courage to speak up, even if it means risking the most stable home she’s ever had?
This moving debut novel explores the cultural divides around class and the gun debate through the eyes of one girl, living on the edges of society, trying to find her way forward.
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“You are seen. You are heard. You are loved.” In a perfect world, every child would know these three absolutes. Ann Braden shares this message with her readers in a funny, poignant story about Zoey, her siblings, their mother, and one very special teacher. An octopus might be the most clever creature, but it can’t hold a candle (or eight) to Braden’s masterfully constructed prose.
This wise book knows we can’t always keep the people we love safe. But it also knows that courage and compassion can sometimes turn lives around. You will care so fiercely about Zoey—the octopus-loving, truth-telling young heroine that you’ll want to wrap all eight of your own arms around her.
With grace and heart and words masterfully woven, The Benefits of Being an Octopus captures the quiet and loud masks of domestic violence. Braden navigates the complexities of choice and power and the meaning of courage. And how sometimes together, we can find our voice and our strength.
I have never read a book that descibe so well the effects of poverty and domestic violence.
Book Review: The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden (Middle Grade) (2018) 4 Stars ****
Intelligent, responsible, loving seventh grader Zoe patiently takes on responsibilities most adults would find overwhelming. Living in a trailer owned by her mother’s current boyfriend Lenny in Peru, Vermont, Zoe must take on the care of her much younger two half-brothers and half-sister after school. Zoe rushes from school to pick up the baby from her mother’s place of work at the pizzeria, then races to the school bus stop with the baby boy in her arms to meet the other two little ones. Sometimes her mother comes home at dinner time, sometimes not until 11:00pm.
It’s not that Lenny is physically abusive, but he constantly berates and insults Zoe’s mother and forces all of them to live in fear lest they disrupt his orderly household. Everything that goes wrong in Lenny’s life is Zoe’s mother’s fault. Lenny is parsimonious to a fault: (1)Checks the mileage on the car for unnecessary trips and quickly calculates the cost of the gasoline. (2) Small yogurts break the budget since it’s an individual serving whereas ground beef can be stretched.
The family depends on food stamps since the low-paying jobs of the adults barely cover the rent and utility bills. Zoe is distressed over her mother’s descent into depression and low self-esteem. The children are neglected: poorly fed, unbathed, hair uncombed, clothing unwashed.
When Zoe joins the debate club at school, her eyes are opened to the severity of their lives under Lenny’s roof. Zoe encourages and helps her mother to take a dramatic stand against this situation and to take control, giving up the victim mentality.
What are the advantages of being an octopus?
1. Having eight arms to be able to hold and comfort the little ones who crave Zoe’s attention while cooking them dinner and cleaning up their messes all at the same time, therefore protecting them from Lenny’s wrath.
2. Camouflaging to become invisible when in danger or afraid.
3. Shooting black ink at enemies.
4. Exercising their superior intelligence when the above mentioned assets are not enough.
5. Clear, focused vision.
This book reminds us that many children live in neglect and in dire circumstances. Other children will often torment these hapless victims, not understanding the impact of their torments or their inability to change their situations. This book would be an excellent source for teaching empathy, discouraging teasing and bullying, and warning against judgmental ostracism especially when the truth of another person’s life is unknown.
This book is very good at making its points but many plot threads are unrealistically disposed of and tied in neat little bows for a happy ending. It’s naive to believe the problems end when the book does.
I wish every single person in my kids’ schools, and all of the teachers and administration, and everyone’s parents, too, could read this book. Like once a year. Sometimes, you know all this already, but sometimes you forget. Sometimes you have no clue, and getting one would definitely have its benefits, for yourself, and for others or the way you treat or respond to or think about others. Honestly, this book pretty much nailed it. My family isn’t like Zoey’s, not the same setup, circumstances, really anything, at least right now, (you never know, right?) but in some things, yep, been there, had that struggle. But 9 out of 10 of the kids we minister to and probably about 75 percent of our neighbors are dealing with situations, relationships, and problems like this. It’s crazy but you WILL Do ANYTHING to keep your family together, but then you maybe DO get ripped off or abused in other ways. Debates like that are the worst! Manipulation…I wish I could erase it ALL, just have it deleted, extinct. And getting out of survival mode (into what, free living? what’s the opposite of survival mode?) takes forever, no matter how long your forever actually is. So yes, we ask that same three-word question her teacher asks, because sometimes, right now, it’s not at ALL the attendance or the grade or the cleanliness or lack thereof that really matters. And she’s right. There DOES need to be more books out there like this. Keep ’em coming. This one was spot-on, at least for me. I’m definitely going to go see what else this author has written!
wonderful evocation of the lives of a lot of kids who don’t get written about