| 摘 要 註 | In this classic picture book, first published in 1960,Tomi Ungerer tells the story of an eight-legged hero.Emile has twice as much courage and four times as manylegs as most people - except, of course, other octopuses.Ungerer's charming illustrations make this unlikeliest ofheroes quite irresistible - everyone will wish they had afriend like Emile. When deep-sea diver Captain Samovar isattacked by a shark, Emile comes to his aid . Grateful tohis rescuer, the Captain invites him to stay at his home,where Emile sleeps in a bath tub full of salt water. Itturns out that as well as being brave, Emile is also agifted musician: able to play three instrumentssimultaneously, he is the life and soul of every party.But Emile soon misses the ocean, and takes a job as alifeguard. He is a great success at the beach: he teacheschildren to swim, saves people who have swum out too farand keeps everyone entertained with his amazing ability toform different shapes with his many limbs - Emile can turnhimself into a chair, a bird, even a unicorn. One day,Emile and the Captain, who works on a police launch,encounter a suspicious-looking boat on the ocean. Theyhave chanced upon a group of smugglers, and Emile onceagain saves the day by capturing the bandits. To celebratehis heroism, the police name their next boat Emile, aftertheir friend the brave and helpful octopus. After all theexcitement, Emile decides to return to his quiet life inthe sea, where Captain Samovar, dressed up in his divingsuit, often comes to join him for a game of chess, and achance to talk about their old adventures. And in case youwere wondering: yes, octopuses is the correct plural formof octopus, not octopi. In fact, based on the word'slinguistic roots (it's a Latinized form of the Greek wordoktopous) the 'correct' plural should really be octopodes- but that would be taking things too far |
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