Ringo Starr song Octopus's Garden to be turned into children's book

Ringo Starr. (Foto: Reuters)

 

Forty-five years after it was written, Ringo Starr's song about wanting to "be under the sea / In an octopus's garden in the shade" is to be turned into a children's book.
Starr has given permission for his Beatles song Octopus's Garden, which describes his wish to "ask my friends to come and see / An octopus's garden with me", to be published as a picture book by Simon & Schuster.

Ben Cort, who illustrates the bestselling Aliens Love Underpants children's series, is the artist who has been chosen to render into pictures Starr's famous lyrics about being "warm below the storm / In our little hideaway beneath the waves / Resting our head on the sea bed / In an octopus's garden near a cave".

"It gives me great pleasure to collaborate with Ben Cort and Simon & Schuster for the further adventures of Octopus's Garden. Peace and love," said Starr in a message to fans. He wrote the song in 1968 during a break from the Beatles, on holiday with his family in Sardinia, when the captain of Peter Sellers's yacht described the habits of octopuses to him.

"He told me all about octopuses – how they go round the seabed and pick up stones and shiny objects and build gardens," Starr has said. "I thought, 'How fabulous!' Because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea too. I wanted to get out of it for a while."

The book will take five children on an underwater adventure in an octopus's garden, hosted by a playful cephalopod who gives them rides on turtles, plays pirates in a sunken city and shelters them from a storm in its cave.

Starr's publisher, Ingrid Selberg at Simon & Schuster UK, said it was a "perfect marriage of a truly child-friendly text, based on Ringo's popular song, with illustrations that revel in the imaginative opportunities presented by the lyrics".

"This is a beautiful and funny book that children, parents and grandparents will love sharing," she said. The hardback picture book, including a CD featuring an unheard music track from Starr, will be published in the UK on 24 October and in North America in January 2014.

Alison Flood

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk