Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Lighthouse Family: The Octopus
Illustrator: Preston McDaniels
Fiction Series
For ages 7 to 10
Simon and Schuster, 2005 ISBN: 978-0689862465
After a long cold winter, spring has once again come to the lighthouse island. Pandora the cat, Seabold the dog, and the three little mice children, Lila, Whistler, and Tiny, are all busy outdoors working in the garden. As they work Seabold tells the children that it is going to be a full moon that night and the tide will be very low in the morning. The children love to explore the beach when the sea has been pulled back from the shore and Pandora says that Lila and Whistler may take their breakfast down to the beach so that they can explore.
The children are very excited at the prospect of exploring lots of open beach and small tide pools. In one of the tide pools they find a very curious creature. Cleo, a small octopus, has been trapped in one of the pools and asks the two little mice to keep her company while she waits for the tide to come back in and release her. Lila and Whistler are happy to do this and soon a friendship begins to grow between the little mice and the color-changing octopus.
In this beautiful book young readers will discover that friendships can be formed between the most unlikely of creatures. It doesn't matter where one lives or what one's parents look like. The important thing is to keep an open mind, and to be "friendly" with whomever you meet.
The care and affection that the characters in this book show for each other is heartwarming and refreshing. This is the fifth book in the "Lighthouse Family" series.
