Octopus Moon - by Bobbie Pyron (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Ten-year-old Pearl loves watching the majestic loggerhead turtles and octopuses glide through the water at the aquarium. Pearl finds it especially easy to identify with the octopuses, who have millions of touch receptors all over their bodies. They feel everything. Sometimes Pearl wishes she was more like a turtle, with a hard outer shell--it hurts too much to feel everything.

And the changes at the start of fifth grade don't feel good to Pearl at all. New teachers, lockers, and being in different classes than her friends is unsettling. Pearl tries her best to pretend she's fine, but she starts to struggle with things that used to come easy, like doing schoolwork; laughing and skateboarding with her best friend, Rosie; running; and even sleeping.

After a disastrous parent-teacher conference, her parents bring Pearl to Dr. Jill, who diagnoses her with depression. At first Pearl is resistant, ashamed of needing Dr. Jill's help; she doesn't like feeling different, but she also doesn't want to continue feeling so bad all the time. When Dr. Jill asks Pearl to try one Impossible Thing each day, Pearl agrees. For each impossible thing she attempts, Pearl puts a bead on a string. Bead by bead, and with the support of family and friends, Pearl finds her way back to herself.

In this tender novel in verse, critically acclaimed author Bobbie Pyron draws on her own childhood experience to tell the story of a brave girl learning to love herself, leaving readers with the powerful, hopeful message that the moon is always full, even if we can't always see that.

Review Quotes

A Schneider Family Book Award Honor
A 2025 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

★ "Pearl's struggles will resonate with readers who grapple with feelings of not being enough...Pearl adopts good management skills in the form of setting goals...repeating some mantras--"My family will always love me. The ocean will always be there. The moon is always full"--to assist her in moving forward in life. This is an important purchase for all children's and teens' library shelves."--School Library Journal, starred review

"Octopus Moon shines with resilience, hope and kindness. Oh, how I wish I'd had this book when I was a kid!"--Katherine Appelgate, author of the Newbery Award winning The One and Only Ivan

"This novel in verse details Pearl's depression, from initial struggles to accepting help...and the stigma around mental illness, and helps her forge a path onward...The narrative itself offers excellent coping strategies... the emphasis is on how using these skills affects her character... [and] healing...Pearl's resilience, hope, and bravery shine like her namesake."--Booklist

"I have so many feelings about this necessary, honest, B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L book. I love Bobbie Pyron's poetry. Buy it, read it, share it!"--John Schu, librarian and author of the New York Times best-selling Louder Than Hunger

"Pyron artfully presents Pearl's navigation of her new diagnosis [depression]... The descriptions of symptoms, including physical exhaustion, provide a window into her experiences... described in the spare verse... Pearl's relationships to the secondary characters are rich and evocative... A full-bodied and authentic exploration of living with depression."--Kirkus Reviews

"Pyron weaves a story with heart, compassion, and authenticity. From the first page, Pearl is a character you want to hug."--Barbara O'Connor, New York Times bestselling author of Wish

"Pyron uses metaphor gorgeously in this compelling verse novel, from Pearl explaining feeling like an octopus (There is no barrier between what an octopus feels / and its world") to her older sister telling her that even when it doesn't look like it, the moon is always full...Eschewing toxic positivity or easy fixes, [Octopus Moon] presents the varied ways people live with mental illness, in Pearl's grandpa, who also deals with depression though he's never named it, and in her two best friends, who both have struggling family members. Through it all, Pearl knows that her family loves her, the ocean will always be there, and the moon is always full."--BCCB Reviews

"Pyron...employs a raft of apt ocean similes to elucidate Pearl's depression with complexity in this perceptive, instructive, and hopeful verse novel, taking care to note that the moon is always full, even when 'we can't see that from/ down here.'"--Publishers Weekly

About the Author