Tentacled Teasers: Nicki Greenberg, It's True! Squids Suck. Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2005.

Nicki Greenberg wrote a book squid by accident. She'd meant to write on her first love, snails, but squid rather took over. As she says, they are fascinating.

It's True! Squid's Suck, takes us through various types of squid, listing their strategies for hiding, the way they feed, the use of their tentacles and suckers, the generally clever things they do. I'd have liked a little more on the latest discoveries of just how smart squid are, but on the whole this was an excellent book, carried along by the genuine and infectious enthusiasm of the author. Any child given this book is likely to be pestering for a visit to the acquarium.

The book is illustrated with life-drawings of squid and neat little cartoons. But what I liked best is that the book is very information dense: any simplification is in the terminology, not the scope.