
The Benefits of Being an Octopus
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Narrated by:
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Amy Melissa Bentley
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By:
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Ann Braden
About this listen
Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there's Lenny, her mom's boyfriend - they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer.
At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend, Fuchsia, has her own issues, and since they're in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it's best if no one notices them.
Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus: eight arms to do eight things at once. Incredible camouflage ability and steady, unblinking vision. Powerful, protective defenses.
Unfortunately, she's not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate club. Even though Zoey resists participating, debate ultimately leads her to see things in a new way: her mom's relationship with Lenny, Fuchsia's situation, and her own place in this town of people who think they're better than her. Can Zoey find the courage to speak up, even if it means risking the most stable home she's ever had?
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The audio edition of the best-selling middle grade novel about a spunky girl born without arms and a boy with Tourette syndrome navigating the challenges of middle school, disability, and friendship - all while solving a mystery in a western theme park. Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is that she was born without them.
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Ever wish a fictional character was real?
- By Audiobookaddict1 on 05-04-20
By: Dusti Bowling
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Alone
- By: Megan E. Freeman
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.
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WARNING
- By Cynthia A Samuels on 09-18-22
By: Megan E. Freeman
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Soul of an Octopus
- A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Sy Montgomery
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orion magazine piece, "Deep Intellect", about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters.
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Eight legs and so much more!
- By Kirstin on 07-02-15
By: Sy Montgomery
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Starfish
- By: Lisa Fipps
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth-birthday party, she's been bullied about her weight. To cope, she tries to live by the Fat Girl Rules - like "no making waves", "avoid eating in public", and "don't move so fast that your body jiggles". And she's found her safe space - her swimming pool - where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world. In the water, she can stretch herself out like a starfish and take up all the room she wants. It's also where she can get away from her mom, who thinks criticizing Ellie's weight will motivate her to diet.
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Perfection!
- By JENNE ESTES on 07-02-21
By: Lisa Fipps
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Inside Out and Back Again
- By: Thanhha Lai
- Narrated by: Doan Ly
- Length: 2 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Written in rich, free-verse poems, this moving tale follows a young Vietnamese girl as she leaves her war-torn homeland for America in 1975. With Saigon about to fall to the communists, 10-year-old Hà, her mother, and brothers are forced to flee their beloved city and head to the United States. But living in a new country isn’t easy for Hà, and she finds adapting to its strange customs ever challenging.
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Shouldn't be a children's book
- By SJC on 07-24-12
By: Thanhha Lai
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Everything Sad Is Untrue
- (A True Story)
- By: Daniel Nayeri
- Narrated by: Daniel Nayeri
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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At the front of a middle-school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much.
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Could not get through it—2 out of 7 hrs
- By AbqRD on 09-13-20
By: Daniel Nayeri
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Code Talker
- A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two
- By: Joseph Bruchac
- Narrated by: Derrick Henry
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Although the mission school bans all that is Navajo, Ned secretly clings to his native language and culture. Proudly joining the U.S. Marines in 1943, he becomes a top-secret Navajo Code Talker. During bloody battles for Japanese islands, Ned and his brave band of code-talking brothers save thousands of lives using Navajo encryption the enemy never cracks.
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Terrible audio
- By Amazon Customer on 02-13-18
By: Joseph Bruchac
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Restart
- By: Gordon Korman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross, Laura Knight Keating, Ramon de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Gordon Korman harkens back to his No More Dead Dogs days in this stand-alone that takes a tone more serious than you've ever heard from him before. A boy who's been a bully and hanging out with the wrong friends gets a new start after a memory-loss-inducing accident. But can someone really change who he is, or will the old him merely come back over time?
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Ehhhh
- By James ODonnell on 07-03-18
By: Gordon Korman
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Fish in a Tree
- By: Lynda Hunt
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of.
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Great book but...not just dyslexia
- By Jennifer Hurst on 12-31-15
By: Lynda Hunt
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A Place to Hang the Moon
- By: Kate Albus
- Narrated by: Polly Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1940 and William, 12, Edmund, 11, and Anna, nine, aren't terribly upset by the death of the not-so-grandmotherly grandmother who has taken care of them since their parents died. But the children do need a guardian, and in the dark days of World War II London, those are in short supply, especially if they hope to stay together. Could the mass wartime evacuation of children from London to the countryside be the answer?
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Excellent Historical Novel
- By Elsie on 06-30-21
By: Kate Albus
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Secrets of the Octopus
- By: Sy Montgomery, Warren K. Carlyle IV - contributor, Alex Schnell - foreword
- Narrated by: Sy Montgomery
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Remarkable new discoveries affirm the octopus as one of nature’s most intelligent and complex animals. This new book brings us closer than ever to these elusive creatures. The companion to the highly anticipated National Geographic television special, this book explores the alluring underwater world of the octopus—a creature that resembles an alien lifeform, but whose behavior has earned it a reputation as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet.
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Loved the narrative format
- By Kiana on 03-11-25
By: Sy Montgomery, and others
What listeners say about The Benefits of Being an Octopus
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- Emma B.
- 02-03-22
it is for the ages it's recommended to
It has a age rating which is a good thing it was just to simple
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- Sean Linder
- 01-08-20
Great book with challenging subjects
Great book covering very difficult subjects. Definitely recommend for middle school students, not really appropriate for lower school students.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-02-19
Great Book
This was a great book for middle readers. I gave it five stars because I believe this book will help other kids view other people in a different light.
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1 person found this helpful
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- W. Swore
- 08-16-24
Tough topics handled brilliantly
This book has a lovely, sweet voice of a girl who comes to see the hard place her mom and siblings are in more clearly. She uses skills from school to help her mom escape from a bad situation and create a new beginning for her whole family.
I also loved that this author showed topics from multiple points of view and didn’t vilify people for what they believed or enjoyed. Definitely an exercise in empathy and understanding.
Very well done.
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- Cass
- 11-06-19
Great read
Can’t believe how this makes me connect to some of the students at our school
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1 person found this helpful
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- Pete Aragno
- 06-09-24
Narrator
Very nice storyline with happy ending, you learn a little about octopuses and a little about life. Very nice.
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- Avalon
- 02-26-20
really good book
I loved this book because it kinda gives you facts and has a story to go with it. And I like the story of a girl who became confident and the naratur is really good too. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-07-24
moving away part
it was just fun to hear and told a good story. this book is one of my favorites because of Zoe and her story
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- Pamela
- 09-12-24
Real life problems told in a great way.
Shows kids how to handle issues that are big in a real way, talks about real issues.
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- Prime user
- 08-03-20
An Amazing Book
This is a great book. I want to set a disclaimer that I’m in middle school and that this is a more mature book that anyone younger should probably not read because there is violence and mature topics that will probably trigger younger kids because there is talk and actions of gun violence and abuse . But besides that it is an amazing book to read and it has a very valid point of view!
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4 people found this helpful