The Benefits of Being an Octopus

The Benefits of Being an Octopus (2018) is a middle-grade coming-of-age novel by Ann Braden. The novel has won many awards, including the National Public Radio (NPR) Best Book of 2018. The protagonist, Zoey Albro, is an observant, somewhat snarky seventh grader who lives with her family in a trailer park in a small Vermont town. Told from Zoey’s first-person, present-tense point of view and set in the present day, the narrative begins in January and ends in the spring.

This guide uses the Kindle edition of the novel for page references and quotations.

Plot Summary

Zoey and her family live in the trailer of her mother’s boyfriend, Lenny. A nursing home orderly, Lenny keeps the trailer organized and spotless. His father, Frank, also lives with them. Frank spends most of his time watching football and angry news shows. Zoey’s mother, Kara, works full-time at the Pizza Pit, cooks and does chores, and cares for Zoey as well as Lenny’s baby son, Hector. In turn, Zoey cares for her two rowdy half-siblings: Bryce, four, and Aurora, three. She puts her siblings’ needs before her own, so she has little time for schoolwork, extracurricular activities, or a social life. Zoey’s lack of participation in school has earned her a reputation as a poor student, though she has interest and ability.

The novel begins on a rare quiet Sunday. Lenny and Kara are at work, and Zoey sits in the living room watching Hector. She’s excited about her current assignment, a presentation debating which animal is the best. She already knows her response: the octopus. Zoey admires its eight tentacles; how it changes color and blends in with its surroundings; how it adapts to its environment; and how it wards off predators with a thick spray of salt water or poisonous ink.

Zoey wants to complete her project, but Hector starts throwing Cheerios and crying, and Bryce and Aurora run screaming from their bedroom. Zoey spends the rest of the day trying to keep them out of Frank’s way while he watches TV—and out of Kara’s way when she gets home to cook dinner. The trailer’s power goes out, arguments ensue, and taking care of Bryce and Aurora takes precedence over Zoey’s schoolwork. After putting Bryce and Aurora to bed, Zoey completes her homework using the neighboring trailer’s porch light, but when she gets on the bus the next morning, she realizes that she forgot the debate packet.

The next day, Zoey brings her completed packet to school but doesn’t have the courage to present it. The social studies teacher, Ms. Rochambeau, finds Zoey’s debate packet in the trash and realizes that Zoey isn’t disengaged after all. Hoping to encourage Zoey, she asks her to join the debate club. After-school activities are out of the question for Zoey, as she must pick up Bryce and Aurora from the bus stop when they return home from their Head Start program. Ms. Rochambeau offers to drive Zoey to the bus stop, taking away Zoey’s excuse.

At school, Zoey is painfully aware of the difference between herself and the other kids. They’re confident, well-dressed, and seemingly carefree; Zoey is grimy and shy. When she contemplates speaking up in class, she has a panic attack. She and her friends Silas and Fuchsia, who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, spend most of their day trying to go unnoticed. Zoey fixates on Matt Hubbard, the most popular boy in class—and the future class president. Fuchsia teases Zoey about having a crush on Matt, but Zoey realizes that she doesn’t have a crush; she just wants to be like Matt: confident, easygoing, well off, and well liked.

Zoey keeps a running commentary in her head about the things happening around her, and she often imagines herself as an octopus. She has the octopus’s watchful eye when she spies on her mother and Lenny talking in their bedroom; in class, she wishes she could camouflage herself like an octopus to remain unseen; when she gets nervous, she imagines her skin growing tough, red, and pimply like the octopus’s when it becomes stressed.

In debate club, Ms. Rochambeau seats Zoey with Matt and a popular girl named Lydia. Matt and Lydia happily get to work, ignoring Zoey, which is fine with her. She reads and takes notes—but only because the other kids are doing so. Despite her reluctance, she begins to learn debate concepts, like what it means to discredit one’s opponent and the difference between personal attacks and arguing ideas with logic. She begins to recognize these dynamics around her, especially in the exchanges between Lenny and her mother. When Zoey spies on their conversations, she sees how Lenny turns Kara’s arguments around to make everything seem like Kara’s fault. He blames her for not submitting the form to Family Services for the electricity—but Zoey later discovers that Lenny purposely hid the form. When Zoey tells Kara this later, Kara angrily tells Zoey to mind her own business. Kara thinks that they’re lucky to be living with Lenny and that it was her own fault for forgetting the form.

Meanwhile, Zoey’s friends Silas and Fuchsia are having a difficult time. Silas lives in Zoey’s neighborhood and usually gushes to her about bobcat hunting with his father but clams up at school. Lately, he has become distant from Zoey too. Fuchsia has been taking more trips to the nurse’s office to use her inhaler, but her sighs and eye-rolling make Zoey think that Fuchsia is just being dramatic. Zoey’s own problems distract her from paying attention to her friends.

Zoey learns that Fuchsia and her mother, Crystal, can’t pay their rent, so they must move in with Crystal’s abusive boyfriend, Michael. Fuchsia lived in foster care when she was younger and dreads being uprooted from her somewhat stable life. When Fuchsia and Crystal move, Fuchsia won’t be able to bring her kitten, Jane Kitty—the only bright spot in Fuchsia’s life. When Zoey hears this, she’s sorry that she ignored Fuchsia but feels powerless to help.

One day while Zoey’s in debate club, a lockdown occurs. Shots ring out from the parking lot. The school doesn’t know who’s responsible, but rumors circulate about the shooter’s identity, and suspicion falls on Silas. One kid says that Silas, who wears a camo trucker hat, is too quiet. Silas’s father was once called to the police station for having a gun in his truck when he picked Silas up from school, though it turned out to be a rifle for an upcoming hunting trip. Because the shooting occurs after school, determining anyone’s whereabouts is nearly impossible. Silas refuses to talk to Zoey, and Zoey is ashamed because, for a moment, she wonders if Silas really was somehow involved.

A few nights later, Fuchsia visits Zoey at home and reveals that Michael fired the shots. He picked up Fuchsia from school that afternoon and threatened her with his gun because Crystal told him that Fuchsia was considering calling Family Services. After pointing the gun at her face, he moved it aside and fired near her head, shattering the passenger window. He shot twice more into the parking lot and drove away. Zoey is devastated and angry that she can do nothing. Fuchsia’s afraid to report Michael for both her and Crystal’s sake. Zoey gives Fuchsia her pink camo coat so that she doesn’t have to walk home in the snow with no coat.

In debate club, Ms. Rochambeau announces the debate topic: gun ownership as an American right. She says that all students will be assigned a position either for or against but won’t know beforehand which side they’ll represent. At Zoey’s table, Matt and Lydia begin to demonize gun owners, citing statistics on mass shootings and lamenting the difficulty of finding a pro-gun argument. Zoey tentatively offers that some people use guns to hunt. Lydia sees Zoey’s camo coat and says that she must be “one of them” (95). Zoey’s unsure of her position on gun ownership; while she knows that gun owners aren’t all bad people, she can’t dismiss the issue like Matt and Lydia given that an abusive man with a gun threatened her friend Fuchsia. Ms. Rochambeau announces that the first two debaters will be an eighth-grade boy and Zoey. To Zoey’s horror, it dawns on her that Ms. Rochambeau’s motive in bringing Zoey to debate club was to include someone who represents the gun-owning lower socioeconomic class. Before learning which side she’ll debate, Zoey grabs her coat and flees.

The next day, Zoey avoids Ms. Rochambeau but listens outside the debate room after school. Matt and the eighth-grade boy debate gun ownership, citing statistics from various websites. Uncharacteristically, Zoey steps forward and delivers a tirade about how the issue isn’t black and white: Guns enrich the lives of some people yet put others in danger. She berates those accusing Silas without proof because he’s quiet and likes to hunt. She asks if they consider her a monster too because she wears a camo jacket. Afterwards, Zoey can’t believe her actions. She’s relieved to have spoken her mind and realizes that the kids in debate club, whose judgment she feared, aren’t better or smarter than she is.

With newfound confidence, Zoey talks to Kara about leaving Lenny. Kara dismisses Zoey again—even after hearing that Bryce has nightmares and has begun talking to Aurora the way Lenny talks to Kara. Later that evening, Lenny announces that he has a new job and that Kara must change her work hours or quit her job to accommodate his new schedule. Kara goes into the bathroom to cry, and once again Zoey presses the issue of leaving Lenny. This time Kara agrees, though they have no car of their own and can’t afford a security deposit.

Zoey proposes that she, Kara, and the kids move in with Fuchsia and Crystal so that they can share the rent, and no one need live with an abusive boyfriend. Crystal reluctantly agrees. Kara and Zoey begin preparing for the stealth move. They furiously pack their belongings into trash bags, hoping to finish before Lenny gets home from work. Kara goes to the Pizza Pit to borrow her coworker Connor’s car while Zoey gets the car seats out of Lenny’s car and helps manage the kids. Frank is home but seems oblivious. When Lenny gets home, Zoey lies and tells him that they’re cleaning out the trailer and taking the garbage to the dump. Kara returns with Connor’s car, and they drive away before Lenny can stop them. On the way to Crystal’s apartment, Kara files a protective order against Lenny and tells Crystal to file one against Michael. The first day in the apartment is tense, as everyone gets used to the new arrangement, but Bryce and Aurora already seem more at ease, and they love Jane Kitty. Zoey decides to remain in debate club even though learning to speak up in front of the group will be difficult. She feels confident, knowing that she has something important to say.