What draws you to a picture book? Is it the artwork? The verse or text? Nostalgia?
Octopus’s Garden by Ringo Starr offers up a good dose of all of these. Even though the Beatles are a bit before my time, when I was in high school my best friend was a big fan, and I caught the bug as well.
This novelty song has been recreated as a picture book with illustrations by Ben Cort. As you can see from the cover and the interior shot below, the illustrations are bright and whimsical. I could see them as a mural on a child’s bedroom wall.
AUDIO CD:
There’s a little introduction from Ringo Starr, then a new version (Ringo only, sans Beatles, I suppose) that mixes a folksy and kid pop sort of sound. Then the next track has Ringo saying “Hello. I’m going to talk the words to the book now.” It then has the typical beep signal to turn the page. Finally, there’s an instrumental version of the song.