Klyde the Kraken Wants a Friend.

Klyde the kraken loves nothing more than a good hug, but whenever he tries to hug the animals in the ocean, they all swim away. Then one day, the colossal creature's monstrous embrace takes down a pirate ship and the shipwrecked buccaneers surprise Klyde with a valuable lesson of emotional literacy: While many friends love to hug, others prefer different ways to greet their mateys.

Alaskan author Brooke Hartman’s buoyant, cheerful, and sidesplitting verses combine with Italian illustrator Laura Borio’s beautifully quirky and charming illustrations to deliver a heart-warming story of social-emotional learning on the high seas.