There's Gonna Be an Octopus Alone in Austin on Saturday

Eight (legs) is enough!

Author and illustrator Divya Srinivasan, let's put a fine point on it.

Because her first children's book, Little Owl's Night, displayed Srinivasan's visual artistry no less vividly than did her previous graphic works for grownups.

And now here's this second book for the kiddos, highlighting the adventures of a young octopus in the great wide ocean, an octopus who enjoys hanging out with friends but who also likes, sometimes, to be alone.

You know how that is, right, wanting a little alone time for yourself? Especially if you're curled up with a good book – and that book could very well be this latest delight from Srinivasan via Viking Juvenile. Because a person (even an octopus, the brain of which, as that beach scene in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow reminds us, possesses a large visual cortex) could spend a sweet hour or two just gazing at the colorful scenes of marine life with which the author has enhanced her charming narrative.

And what better way to celebrate the release of such a book than with a presentation, with cupcakes and baklava, at Austin's BookPeople?

And that's exactly what's happening this Saturday, May 25th, at 2pm.