Read This: Cowboy and Octopus

This book is a favorite of our entire family: Cowboy and Octopus. Beeper loves it, Mr Beeper loves it, and so do I. It is also from two of my favorite authors and illustrators: Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. You may already know them from The Stinky Cheese Man, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, or Seen Art?. Their illustrations are always colorful, artful, and really, really cool. Really. And their stories are dang clever and perhaps even a little bizarre with a dash of the random. But about this book... Cowboy and Octopus is about the oddly matched friendship between a cowboy, and, well, an octopus. Yes, strange--but they are so endearing as friends. Sort of Frog-and-Toad-like, but weirder. What this book is really about is friendship between two very different people/animals. It is about how they try to be good friends to one another but sometimes, since they are so different, they express their caring in ways neither of them expect--or may have chosen, if they had a choice. The story is funny, sweet, hilarious and absurd, pretty much lacking in plot--and I do think there is something meaningful in there to be gleaned, under all the wonderfully busy illustrations and ridiculous dialogue--but I will let you decide what that may be for yourselves, should you get your hands on a copy of the book.

Incidently, I noted that the hardcover version of this book is on sale from Amazon right now for only $6.80--heckuva deal, I tell you--and you can find it right here. Makes me want to buy a second copy to keep on hand as a gift...that's how much I love this book.