Leo and the Octopus

Description

The world was too bright for Leo. And too loud. "I must be living on the wrong planet," Leo thought. Leo struggles to make sense of the world. He doesn't understand the other children in his class, and they don't seem to understand him. But then one day, Leo meets Maya. Maya is an octopus, and the more Leo learns about her, the more he thinks that perhaps he isn't alone in this world, after all.

When Isabelle was 9 years old, her parents gave her a red typewriter for her birthday. She started crafting stories in German and Luxembourgish, her native language, straight away, but it wasn't until her first son was born that she returned to writing full time. Isabelle writes across several genres, writing picture books, middle grade and screenplays. She speaks four languages fluently, but English is her favourite for prose. She is a member of the SCBWI and a 2017/18 Children's Literature Fellow at Stony Brook University in Southampton, NY. Chris Nixon is a multidisciplinary artist creating across illustration, graphic design, creative direction and public art. Based in Perth, Australia, Chris's work is inspired by the West Coast and classic surf culture with an emphasis on the handmade and crafted, using colour, texture and pattern across a wide range of media from children's books to animation, commercial illustration and large artwork installations.

"This enchanting story describes the world as perceived by an autistic child and an octopus. In some ways they both seem like aliens, and both share a talent for problem solving. As an autistic child, Leo finds it difficult to determine what someone is feeling by reading facial expressions and body language. He admires how the octopus changes colour according to mood and yearns for humans to have the simple colour code of an octopus. The story also illustrates another aspect of autism, that is, finding friendship through similar interests. The sensitive descriptions throughout the book of what it is like to have autism are accurate and perceptive on so many levels." - Tony Atwood, leading psychologist in Asperger's Syndrome