Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

I “met” Anne Lambelet when she created phenomenal art for CLOAKED IN COURAGE: UNCOVERING DEBORAH SAMPSON, PATRIOT SOLDIER. Today you get a peek behind and inside Anne’s latest release, I’M A DUMBO OCTOPUS! A GRAPHIC GUIDE TO CEPHALOPODS. I have to tell you, it’s totally fun! And I learned a lot!

GIVEAWAY! Anne is gifting a signed copy of I’M A DUMBO OCTOPUS! to one lucky commenter below!

Diving Deep Past First Impressions by Anne Lambelet

I’m a Dumbo Octopus! went through a lot of iterations. All my manuscripts do, but I think Dumbo’s journey was the most meandering of anything I’ve ever written. It started out as an idea for a non-fiction picture book, morphed into a comedic graphic novel about an octopus crime-fighting team called the “cephalo-squad”, then finally landed somewhere between those two versions as the joke- and fact-filled graphic novel that was ultimately published. 

Despite coming at this story from all over the map, there was one central idea that remained consistent. I knew that dumbo octopuses don’t have a lot of the usual abilities everyone associates with cephalopods. They can’t ink, change color, etc. so I wanted my main character to struggle with being just a “dumbo”. Then there could be a nice resolution where he realizes the unique gifts he brings to the table and why being a dumbo is really cool in its own special way. The problem, though, was in finding what those unique gifts would actually be. 

In most of the earlier versions, the special thing about my dumbo — his sort of super power — was being very cute. I do think, given how alien and unsettling most cephalopods look, that actually being cute is something fairly unique to dumbos. Plus, it seems relatable to children to feel sort of incapable of a lot of adult things but to still be able to weaponize their cuteness to great effect! However, this ending never really sat right with me. First of all, there were other books that already had that solution. Kate Beaton’s wildly successful The Princess and the Pony comes to mind. And there is even a book called Hello, my name is… about a flapjack octopus getting the scientific name “adoribilis” because of its irresistible cuteness. Once I discovered that one, my heart sank. This book has already been done, I thought. Why even write mine?

But I couldn’t let it go. I wanted to keep digging. After all, the second problem with cuteness being my octopus’s super power, is that that’s not actually something that contributes to the real-life survival of this species. I needed something more intrenched in the research. Cuteness has never stopped a hungry predator. Besides, dumbos live so deep underwater, its not like predators would even see the cuteness anyway. And that’s where the solution lay: at the bottom of the ocean. The reason all of those other cephalopods have such amazing camouflage abilities is because they live in bright, shallow waters where predators rely on sight. Meanwhile, dumbo octopus’s live in a completely different environment: a harsh, alien world thousands of feet down in which none of the other cephalopods could ever survive. Dumbos may look harmless and cute, but the conditions they endure are some of the most extreme on the entire planet! 

Once that clicked, everything else fell into place. Greg Hunter at Lerner Books had received my cephalo-squad graphic novel MS on submission. He gave me the feedback that he basically thought the animal crime-fighting team storyline felt a little overdone and uninspired and that it was getting in the way of what was truly exciting here: the facts. He gave me the opportunity to submit a re-write focusing on the scientific information without the shoe-horned narrative. I returned to the research, letting that drive the ideas and not the other way around. I arrived at my new, previously mentioned resolution, hammered the final version out in a rush of feverish excitement, sent it off to Greg just a few days later, and the rest is history!  

I guess if there’s any practical advice to take away from this, it’s to stick with your ideas and with your research. There’s always something worthwhile hidden in the depths. Sometimes you just have to dive deep to find it!

Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of I’M A DUMBO OCTOPUS! from Anne Lambelet! (US addresses only, please. Winner announced 11/14/25)

And when you enjoy a book, please support authors and illustrators with online reviews. 😍