The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Braden, Ann. The Benefits of Being an Octopus. Sky Pony Press. 2018. Kindle.

Zoey Albro is the seventh-grade protagonist of the novel, which is narrated by her in first-person present. Zoey lives in a trailer with her mom, her mom’s boyfriend (Lenny), Lenny’s dad (Frank), her two toddler-age siblings (Bryce and Aurora), and her baby brother (Hector). The trailer belongs to Lenny, who is the fanciest and richest man that Zoey has ever met. She loves Lenny, and she feels resentment toward her mother, who is always seeming to mess everything up.

Zoey’s history teacher has assigned a debate packet from homework, and Zoey is supposed to argue for the best animal in the world. Zoey never does homework because she is too busy with caretaking responsibilities while her mom is at work, but she really wants to fill out her packet because she loves octopuses more than anything else in the world, and she has seen The Mysterious and Fascinating World of the Octopus hundreds of times. She starts to fill it out, but then Lenny comes home to watch the football game and Zoey takes her siblings into the room they all share to keep them quiet while her mother cooks dinner. Zoey sits down to watch the game with Lenny and eat cheese puffs, but then the electricity goes off. Lenny blames Zoey’s mother for not turning in the paperwork, even though she swears she did. Zoey is angry with her mother for messing up, and she wishes she were related to Lenny instead of her weak and careless mother. That night, Zoey finishes her packet after she gets her siblings to sleep.

The next day, Zoey goes to school and realizes that she forgot her debate packet. Her teacher, Ms. Rochambeau, tells her that she cannot participate in the debate since she did not do her packet. After school, Zoey takes the bus to the Pizza Pit to pick up Hector from her mom. Then she runs to the bus stop to pick up Aurora and Bryce, but she gets there late. She shouts at them from across the street because they look scared and confused. Aurora runs out into the middle of the street and nearly gets hit by a car. Bryce has an emotional breakdown. Zoey runs out to the street to get Aurora, and then she calms Bryce down by giving him stones to hold. Ms. Rochambeau pulls over and asks if Zoey is okay. She says she is fine. Ms. Rochambeau asks her to bring her packet the next day.

Zoey goes to school the next day with her packet, but by the time she gets to history class, she feels insecure about speaking in front of all the wealthy and popular kids, who always make fun of her and say she smells like cigarette smoke because her mother cannot afford the laundromat and Lenny smokes inside the trailer Instead of turning her packet in, Zoey throws it away. However, Ms. Rochambeau finds it and transfers Zoey to her debate class on Wednesdays.

Zoey goes to her new debate club and sits at a table with Matt, the class president, and Lydia, a popular and wealthy girl. Zoey feels out of place, so she stays quiet and does not participate. The next week, Zoey goes to school and her best friend, Fuchsia, reveals that her mother is making them move to a new apartment with her sketchy new boyfriend, Michael. Fuchsia is upset because she will have to get rid of Jane Kitty, her beloved kitten.

Ms. Rochambeau approaches Zoey and asks her to join the after-school debate club. Zoey says she cannot because she must pick up her siblings, but Ms. Rochambeau offers to drive her straight home after the club ends. Zoey says she will think about it, and then Ms. Rochambeau reveals that she grew up in poverty and was the first in her family to graduate high school. She encourages Zoey to take control of her life, make her own choices, and suck up the injustice of the whole situation.

Zoey feels angry about the advice. She goes home and is delighted to see that her mother bought her favorite yogurt. That night, she spies on her mother and Lenny and hears him berating her for buying yogurts and telling her that she would be on the streets without him. Zoey realizes that Lenny has been emotionally abusing her mother for years and that this is the reason her mother has been so depressed. Zoey decides that Ms. Rochambeau is right, and she gives herself a Sharpie-tattoo of an octopus.

The next day, Zoey decides to join the debate club. They start preparing topics for a big tournament, but then the school goes into a lockdown because someone shot through the windows of a car in the parking lot before driving away.

The next morning, Zoey goes back to school and learns that everyone is spreading a rumor that Silas—her friend from the trailer park—is the shooter because he openly loves hunting and never talks. Ms. Rochambeau announces that they will be debating gun rights at the tournament, and Zoey sits silently and uncomfortably as the whole class bashes guns, hunters, and anyone who is not vehemently opposed to gun rights. Zoey’s family hunts, and she thinks it is very fun and cool, so she is offended.

That night, Lenny comes home angry because he has been fired for yelling at a patient at his nursing home. He blames Zoey’s mother, and Zoey feels more infuriated than ever. At debate club the next day, everyone makes fun of Zoey for having a camo jacket and being pro-gun. She runs out of the school and walks home alone. Inside the trailer, she discovers that Lenny never turned in the electric company paperwork.

Zoey tells her mother, but her mother defends Lenny, slaps Zoey, and warns her to stop spying on them. Fuchsia walks to Zoey’s house that night and reveals that Michael picked her up from school, threatened her with a gun, and then shot the windows out of his own car. Zoey urges Fuchsia to go to the police, but she is too scared. At debate club, Zoey explodes and scolds everyone for treating the issue of gun rights as If it were black and white, or a game. She runs outside, feeling happy at having finally spoken up.

Zoey goes home and uses her debate skills to convince her mom to leave Lenny. Together, they try to orchestrate an escape plan, but their finances are terrible, and there are waitlists to get into domestic violence shelters. In the end, Zoey and Fuchsia get their mothers together and urge them to move in together so they can both escape their abusive boyfriends. Although it is a tight fit, the two families end the story happy and hopeful for the future, and Zoey makes plans for travelling to the big debate tournament with Ms. Rochambeau.