Publisher's Weekly Review
Ciraolo (Hug Me) sets her tale about social awkwardness in an underwater world of brilliantly colored sea creatures. A small, wide-eyed flapjack octopus named Maurice hides behind his parent's ample form: "There's a new kid in town, I don't know if you've noticed?" a narrator observes. The creature's glance shows trepidation as he prepares to enter fish school: "He's not the type who stands out in class." The others vie to answer questions; the octopus hides under his desk. And on the playground, "unless you were looking for him/ you wouldn't know he's missing." Yet there's another side to the small cephalopod. Ciraolo draws him drifting off alone to the Deep Blue dance hall, where he sways and flaps to unheard music in the dark ocean depths, surrounded by glowing creatures. "Oh, do invite him to your birthday party," the narrator pleads--revealing, a few pages later, firsthand knowledge about shy creatures. Sly humor spices the spreads throughout--Maurice shows up to a party in a scribbly, outraged-looking paper bag mask. A plea for acceptance might embrace an unobtrusive aesthetic, but Ciraolo's palette is bright and her line is supple; she makes shyness seem downright fashionable. Ages 3--5. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
A shy octopus makes a similarly reclusive friend. The front endpapers introduce readers to Maurice, a flapjack octopus, an impossibly adorable pink sea critter who hides behind his mom, under his desk at school, and in anything he can find. The mysteriously omniscient narrator suggests that "Right now, you're probably thinking 'What a bore!' But I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions." Following this observation, readers see Maurice jetting off to the Deep Blue Dance Hall and performing a solo dance in an extremely cute six-panel sequence, possibly to an unseen audience. The story concludes with Maurice being dragged to a birthday party, hidden under a paper bag with a delightfully grouchy face drawn on it. There he meets a similarly disguised yellow boxfish named Lucy, who turns out to have been the narrator the whole time. Naturally, the two become friends. Careful observers who flip back through the book will realize that Lucy has been hiding in the backgrounds of multiple earlier pages. Gorgeous, muted illustrations show an entrancing variety of sea life, and the personalities of each creature carry the story rather than the awkward prose and inconsistent storyline (that dance sequence is delightful but extraneous). A feast for the eyes. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
