Hey, it's Reading with Rella B. I just have one question.
Are you ready?
Are you ready to come along with me?
Are you ready to imagine with Rella B?
Hi friends, it's Rella B. I'm so excited you came to read with me.
Well, we're going to have to find out what we're reading today.
And in order to do that, I'm going to give you a riddle.
But before I give you the riddle, don't forget that if you would like to have a fun activity to do along with our podcast, then you can find the free printable link in the linked in the description below.
So let's go ahead and get started with our riddle.
I'm gonna give you three hints and then a couple seconds to guess.
Are you ready?
Hint number one, I live in the sea with eight long arms.
Hint number two, my clever tricks keep me from harm.
Hint number three, with ink to hide and suction cups to grip, what am I?
Good job.
If you guessed an octopus, then you would be correct.
And the reason that an octopus is our riddle today is because we're gonna have an amazing author friend come and join us with their story.
That's all about a little octopus.
But before we get into that, let's think about our arms and maybe even our fingers.
Octopus arms are technically called tentacles, and they have eight of them.
We only have two arms, but we have eight fingers and two thumbs, so technically ten fingers.
Octopus can actually move all eight of their tentacles and do different tasks with them at the same time.
Could you imagine being able to do that with your fingers?
Do a different task with each one?
Maybe one of them would be writing and one of them would be stirring up some mix for a cake batter.
Wouldn't that be so silly?
Let's go ahead and wiggle our fingers.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle our fingers.
And then let's go ahead and wiggle them until we reach the sky.
Reach up high, wiggling your fingers.
And then let's reach back down low, low, low.
Take your wiggling fingers and touch your toes.
And then let's reach our wiggling fingers far out wide.
As wide as you can go.
How far can you reach your wiggly fingers?
And now let's take our wiggly fingers and put them on our cheeks. and give ourselves a big smile.
All right, I don't know about you, but I'm ready for storytime.
Let's go ahead and welcome our author friend.
Hi, friends.
So I'm so excited to share a beautiful story with you guys.
This is going to be Holly, and she is an amazing author that is going to share her fun.
Octopus story.
I don't know about you guys, but I love deep sea creatures.
They're so magnificent and sometimes mysterious.
So let's go ahead and welcome Miss Holly today.
Hi, Holly, how are you?
Hello, I'm good.
How are you?
I'm so great.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
So I heard you had an octopus friend to share his story with us today.
I do.
His name is Paco and he's super curious.
Ooh, a curious octopus.
That is so much fun.
Can you tell us a little bit about what Paco looks like?
Yeah, so he is teeny tiny and blue and he's so happy and so excited to adventure.
Oh, this sounds like such a fun story.
I think we're ready to hear it.
So the story is called Paco the Octopus, A Tale of Perseverance.
Paco was a curious little octopus who lived on a coral reef deep in the sea.
One day, he thought to himself, I wonder how big this coral reef is.
Determined to find out, he began to explore.
Before he had gone far, he came across a very large barracuda with more teeth than Paco could count.
Oh no!
The barracuda was smacking her lips looking around for a tasty morsel to eat.
Paco's three hearts pounded in fear.
He had to hide and fast.
Mustering all his courage, the clever little octopus squirted out a swirling cloud of blackie.
It worked!
While the barracuda was lost in the cloud, Paco quickly scooted away.
As he swam, Paco remembered the words his mama used to say.
You beat your fear when you persevere.
Soon after, a large, hungry tiger shark spotted Paco and began chasing him.
The frightened octopus darted this way and that, but he couldn't escape.
Chomp!
The tiger shark bit off one of Paco's eight squiggly arms.
Ouch!
But before the shark could bite off another, Paco found a hiding place in the coral.
There, while he safely rested, Paco's arm grew right back.
Paco soon continued on his journey, remembering the words his mama used to say.
You beat your fear when you persevere.
More cautious since his encounters with the barracuda and the shark.
Paco continued swimming, but kept a close eye out for dangerous predators.
He spied a pod of hungry dolphins approaching overhead.
Yikes!
Thinking fast, Paco dove behind some nearby rocks and camouflaged his shape and color to look like a rock himself.
The dolphins kept on swimming, never seeing him.
Paco thought about the words his mama used to say.
You beat your fear when you persevere.
Finally, Paco could see the far edge of the coral reef ahead.
As he swam eagerly forward, he was suddenly stopped in his tracks, but this time not by a scary predator.
Looking down, he found himself filled in some old fishing line.
Uh-oh.
Closing his eyes to think, Paco stopped struggling and started thinking.
One by one, he figured out how to slip each of his arms free from the line.
As he swam away, he remembered his mama's words.
You beat your fear when you persevere.
At last, Paco arrived at the end of the coral reef.
There he discovered a beautiful lagoon where he could rest.
While he floated in the gentle water and thought about his adventures crossing the reef, a school of colorful tropical fish approached him.
They were friendly and very curious.
They had never seen an octopus before.
What are you and what are those, they asked, eyeing his eight wriggly arms.
I'm an octopus, Paco said with a smile, and these are my arms.
Where did you come from, they asked him.
That's a long story, Paco said.
Then he began telling the fish about the dangers he had met while crossing the vast reef.
The barracuda, the tiger shark, the dolphins, and the fishing line.
He explained how he had used his unique abilities to escape each one.
Wow, that's amazing, they said.
What else can you do?
Well, Paco said, each of my arms can think apart from the others, so they can do eight different things all at the same time.
I also have three hearts and I can disguise myself to blend in with my surroundings.
Also, there are no bones in my body except for my beak, so I can squeeze into very tight spaces.
And I have a big brain, which means I can remember things for a long time and learn from my experiences.
The fish were very impressed.
You're a really interesting fellow, Paco.
We're so glad you came to our lagoon, I'm glad too.
He replied, and he shook the fin of each one of them, eight fish at a time.
After that, Paco loved the lagoon so much that he decided to stay and live there.
But he never stopped exploring and his fish friends often saw him going out on adventures to see more of the big world beyond.
And whenever he faced a challenge, he remembered the words his mom used to Wow, that is such an amazing story.
So where did you get that?
Did your mama used to tell you that you beat your fear when you persevered?
So actually, this story was inspired by my daughter, who was born 11 weeks early.
We spent nine weeks in the NICU together and just watching her grow, grow and thrive and then finally come home just really made me think of how inspiring that is.
Like you just keep going day after day and you're persevering, and I've always been a really big fan of the octopus.
They just have so many unique qualities and traits and characteristics that I thought it would be a nice way to kind of present that theme of perseverance to kiddos everywhere.
And they can learn some fun facts about octopuses along the way.
I definitely learned some really fun facts. tonight and it's really amazing.
It's almost like octopi or octopuses.
Either way, I believe you can say octopi or octopuses either way.
Oh, wonderful.
You know, he just looked like a Paco to me.
I was working with the illustrator and the sweet little face just like popped into my head and I was like he looks like a Paco.
So we went with that.
I love it.
I know I've gotten to see the amazing illustrations that you have, but if you want to purchase your book and learn more about Paco the octopus and you, where would we go?
Absolutely.
So you can find Paco the octopus, a tale of perseverance on Amazon.
There's a smaller softback version and there's hardback available.
And I also have a website. which is www.hollyrampone.com.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Holly.
And is there anything else you'd like to share with us today?
I just very much appreciate the opportunity and thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you.
It was so great having you today.
I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Wow, that was such an incredible story.
And if you would like to find out more about our author friend and their story, make sure you check the links down below, as well as getting your free printable as well.
Thank you so much for joining me today and...
And you know what time it is.
Show us co-creators in the app.
Tell us, tell us, tap, tap, tap.
Hello, smartphone, tell me today.
Did all our friends have fun and play?
I hear my friends, Feria, Kelsey, and Honey and Coco had fun today.
Won't you join us another day?
Thank you so much for joining me on Reading with Relibee.
I hope you enjoyed this story time just as much as I did.
And if you'd like to watch YouTube videos and have a more visual experience, where we also stretch and do riddles, definitely make sure that you check out Reading with Relibee on YouTube.
I'm so excited and I hope that you'll see us there too.
And if you would like to become a co-creator, you can go to the want to participate tab on relabbookscom.
So I hope that I can shout out your name soon and we'll see you next time.
Toodles!
