There's a Canadian author named Karen Wallace. She published a children's book amusingly named Gentle Giant Octopus. I kid you not! Either it's a gigantic coincidence, or she happened to be aware of, or even a fan of Gentle Giant! This book is simply a children's book, most copies being bought by parents who never heard of Gentle Giant. There are reviews over at Amazon on the book, but all but one are from people who are completely unaware of the band or album and simply bought it for their children, but one review was joking around about the prog rock band and album, which I found amusing. I'd find it hard to believe Mrs. Wallace didn't name this after the band and album. I wonder how many progheads bought this book simply because of the rather obvious title? But the story had everything to do with a gentle giant octopus and not to do with the Gentle Giant album Octopus. Here's the book:

Illustrated by Mike Bostock. Perhaps a son of one Gerald Bostock, remember him?  

Well, this particular proghead did, after finding it in a secondhand bookshop in Auckland and being gobsmacked by the title, the artwork and the fact there was no apparent link to the band.

The book came back with me to Australia from NZ (where obviously in my opinion it had been under-appreciated)... 

Icarium wrote: good it was this and not Aquired the Taste, could produce a wrong image.

As a sidenote(and an unrelated one at that)Ringo Starr wrote a children's book called "Octopus's garden" based on his song of course.

Anyway, it's funny that some of you are going to buy this book just because of the title.  I hope at least some of you buy the Ringo book too. 

I was going to say that it was too much of a coincidence and had to be a sly wink wink from the author, but I also didn't know that the nickname for an octopus is the 'gentle giant' of the sea. In that light, it probably is just a coincidence and the author wouldn't know who Gentle Giant is any more than the kids the book is aimed after.

Speaking of childrens books / prog connections, for years my wife worked for the American Library Association editing children's / young adult books and reviews. At one point there was a conference for ALA employees in Seattle my wife attended where a noted visiting YA author named Mal Peet would be honored. I knew I'd heard that name before but couldn't put my finger on it (and I'm hardly an expert on youth literature). Then it hit me (nerd that I am). On the original issue of VdGG's second album, "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other," a psychedelic poster was included with a write-up on the album from -- you guessed it -- Mal Peet. That album write-up was from '69, this dinner was probably 2007, several decades later. I told my wife she had to go up and introduce herself and let Mal know that I (her boyfriend at the time) wrote a book on VdGG. She didn't (too shy), but I did have it confirmed that it was the same guy (he was lifelong friends with VdGG drummer Guy Evans and wrote for Time Out at the time of writing the notes for The Least...)

 

PS. I found out how to contact her; now waiting for her answer! 

Anyway, that's kind of what I suspected. I'm sure many people who read the snow goose had no idea there was a prog band called Camel who put out an album out with the same name either.