My Cousin Has Eight Legs!
This very tall tale, despite some promising moments, boggles the mind with details when just one focused adventure would suffice. Narrated by an unnamed boy, it introduces Victor, an orange octopus who "slithered out of his cave in Puget Sound" to take in the nearby sights. Attaching himself, as it were, to the boy's family, the tentacled invertebrate climbs Mount Rainier, goes to the zoo and, clad in human clothes, poses as the narrator's cousin at elementary school. Victor's too-numerous, outlandish activities so lack (even picture-book) believability and purpose that reader attention wanes; in fact, the most stimulating passages here feature authentic, undersea octopus behavior rather than convoluted fantasies. Beatific smiles proliferate (even trees are grinning), and a somewhat garish, though not unappealing, palette of primarily aqua, bright pinks and deep yellows colors each illustration. Brevity and conciseness might have been the soul of wit. Ages 3-up.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.