Book excerpt: Octopus Pirate is a time-travelling steampunk tale set in the Victorian period. It's the story of a foundling who discovers he has unusual talents, such as camouflage, squishing into small spaces and the ability to communicate with octopuses! As a baby, the hero of this book is washed up on an island off the Scottish mainland. An eccentric former nun called Mary, who lives there alone with her cats, brings him up and names him after her favorite character, Pinocchio. Later she changes this to Coco for convenience. The teenage Coco joins a circus where he makes friends with Eric, an electronic magician who has an act where he makes a robot teleport across the tent. Coco, narrowly escaping plots against him, flees to Cornwall with Eric. Here they raise funds to build a replica pirate ship, which is also an airship and time machine.