Octopus's Garden
Written by Ringo Starr
Illustrated by Ben Cort
Published by Simon and Schuster
When I was a tiddler, my mum had one of those funky and groovy "Dansette" record players. You know the sort of thing, made of wood, covered in vinyl, came with a hinged lid and a built in speaker - and could play a stack of records at a time! Whoah!
Music was always part of our family life and I remember two records being demanded on a loop. "Yummy Yummy Yummy I've got Love in my Tummy" and "Octopus's Garden" from the Beatles "Abbey Road" album. So hearing that a book was being made of the latter made me wonder just how many other classic kid-friendly tunes could get a similar treatment (Surely David Bowie's "The Laughing Gnome" has to be in there somewhere?)
In cahoots with Ben Cort as illustrator, Ringo's underwater sing-a-long has now arrived - complete with bonus CD of the song - for our delectation and right now, being under the warm sea, in an Octopus's garden sounds absolutely bloomin' marvellous as it's cold and rainy here.
Ben (Aliens Love Underpants) Cort's illustrations are absolutely spot on and perfect for a book that reads like a song (this works to a varying degree of success, I think some of the repeated lines are a bit weird and jar a bit) but is lyrical and bouncy. Ringo wrote the song, inspired by a story that someone told him about octopuses in the wild collecting shells and shiny things to place around their homes "like a garden".
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| An octopus's garden! What a great place to be! |
For a whole generation of adults, the minute you hear the name of the song you can hear it in your head - and it's fab to think that kids will also be able to enjoy it all the more, now they've got a fabulous book to accompany it.
Charlotte's best bit: Charlotte is still blissfully unaware of who or what The Beatles are, but it's a heck of a good way to inspire a whole new generation of fans to delve into their back catalogue!
Daddy's Favourite bit: No cameo from The Yellow Submarine? I'm slightly disappointed!
(Kindly sent to us for review by Simon and Schuster Children's Books)