Title: The One and Only Ivan
Author: Katherine Applegate
Published: Jan. 12, 2017
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 325
Genre: Children/ Animals
Review: library book
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.
Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.
Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.
Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.
Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.
Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.
Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.
So I saw this book poster at school and I saw the second grade teacher was reading it to her students. I thought just maybe A would love to read about Ivan because it seems just like such a great book. Thank you second grade teacher for showing us a book that I had never read or heard of before. It was an absolute awesome book. A actually wanted to try to read the book herself in some chapters and that was amazing. We are introduced to Ivan who lives in a mall zoo how sad is that. Though he is not the only one we have Stella the elephant and soon Ruby as well. Just reading about how they lived broke our heart. No grass no sunlight just a cage. That is no place for an animal to live. As we read A had question on why Ivan was locked up and of course that lead to discussions that was good for her to learn and be educated on animals.
Through out this story we see that Ivan is not a selfish silverback he is one that cares for others and really uses his brain to figure out how to get out of a situation. Through Ivan we see how he remembers his past and how he remembers living in a mall. This is one story I would really recommend to be on the curriculum to have the children read. We see great friendships between the animals and we see how they process grief. I didn't realize that this book was based on a real gorilla named Ivan and so course I had to do research and to find out that Ivan spent so many years in a mall without any other gorillas was so sad. Honestly, how could you not see that he needed to be with others.
This is one book that I will be adding to my collection of must haves. One that I will for sure pass down to my children and hopefully they will pass it to their children.
Below are some links that I looked at about Ivan:
Katherine Applegate is the author of The One and Only Ivan, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal. Her novel Crenshaw spent over twenty weeks on the New York Times children's bestseller list, and her first middle-grade stand-alone novel, the award-winning Home of the Brave, continues to be included on state reading lists, summer reading lists, and class reading lists.
Katherine has written three picture books: The Buffalo Storm; The Remarkable True Story of Ivan, the Shopping Mall Gorilla (often used as a companion book to The One and Only Ivan for younger readers); and Sometimes You Fly(publishing in spring, 2018). For beginning readers, Katherine wrote Roscoe Riley Rules, a seven-book series.
With her husband, Michael Grant, Katherine co-wrote Animorphs, a long-running series that has sold over 35 million books worldwide.
Katherine lives in Marin County, California, with her family and assorted pets.
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