Cuddles the Cuttlefish — Margaret Gray

"Cuddles The Cuttlefish" celebrates the wonderful marine environment round the south west coast of England. The tale follows the development and encounters of a young cuttlefish.Three of the main cuttlefish characters are introduced in the first chapter. Cleo and Clive lost their first clutch of eggs in a pollution incident. Cuddles is one of the babies from their first successful brood. Cleo takes Cuddles and her first babies to the reef and shows them how and where to catch their food. She later takes them round the reef, shows them navigation marks and describes the creatures they meet. Cleo explains what the baby cuttlefish can eat and encourages them to play gently with other marine animals. Some of the baby cuttlefish disappear.The following day, Clive takes Cuddles and the older babies along the beach to the wreck. Clive describes what they come across, what they can eat and what could eat them. He explains how the family can get back home. The sea becomes quite rough and the baby cuttlefish are weary by the time they reach their crab pot home.It is not long before the young cuttlefish are allowed to explore without their parents. They come across divers for the first time and learn how to catch an easy meal. On his first solo adventure, Cuddles nearly loses the end of a tentacle and almost loses his life. Later, Cuddles meets and befriends Sammy, a young squid. The two explore the reef together and Sammy shows Cuddles a sheltered inlet, which is home to a seahorse. However, Sammy disappears so Cuddles returns to the wreck, where Sammy was last seen.Sadly, Cuddles is unable to find Sammy again. However, he meets Claudie, a beautiful cuttlefish, born in the wreck earlier in the year. Later, they go to a gathering where they meet up with their families.Cuddles and Claudie become the best of friends. They spend the autumn and winter exploring their surroundings. By the spring, they are young adults and realise that they are more than friends. They start a family and the cuttlefish life cycle is repeated.A human family later find cuttlefish bones along the nearby beach. Some divers show the children images of cuttlefish that they have just taken underwater. The pictures encourage the children to take an interest in the marine environment.