The One and Only Ivan was written by Katherine. A . Applegate. (See other books by her here. She also wrote an award-winning book, Crenshaw.) In this book, there is gorilla named Ivan, A elephant named Stella, a dog named Bob, Julia and her dad the janitor George, and a baby elephant named Ruby.
This is also a great book for animal lovers! This book has an interesting approach using animal perspectives instead of human telling the story and sharing their view. it also shows how Humans can hurt animals without realizing and for their own good. This amazing book is a classic children’s literature, suitable for children age 9 and beyond.
And if you still don’t believe that this book is amazing, just look at all the awards it has gotten! The One and Only Ivan won a Newbery Medal.
The One and Only Ivan is a work of fiction, but the inspiration for this imagined tale lies with a true story.
Ivan, a real gorilla, lived at Zoo Atlanta, but on the way to that happy ending, he spent almost three decades without seeing another of his own kind before being moved to Zoo Atlanta in 1994.
After being captured as in infant in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ivan’s female companion, reported to have been his twin, died en route to the US or shortly thereafter), Ivan was raised in a home until he became unmanageable. At that point, he was added to an odd collection of animals housed in a circus-themed mall in Washington state.
Ivan spent twenty-seven years of his life alone in a cage. Over time, as an understanding of primate needs and behavior grew, public discomfort with Ivan’s lonely state grew as well, particularly after he was featured in a National Geographic special entitled “The Urban Gorilla.” A public outcry followed, including heartfelt letters from children. When the mall where Ivan lived went bankrupt, he was placed on permanent loan to Zoo Atlanta, which houses the largest group of captive western lowland gorillas in the nation.
Ivan became a beloved celebrity at Zoo Atlanta, where he lived contentedly with other gorillas, although he never sired any offspring. He was known for his paintings, which were often “signed” with his thumbprint. Ivan died on August 20, 2012, at the age of 50.
Ivan and Kinyani were real gorillas — and so, by the way, was Jambo, whose story is recounted in the book. But all other characters and situations in the novel are entirely the product of my imagination. When I started to write about the grim facts of Ivan’s solitary existence, a new tale slowly began to take shape. At least on the page, where anything is possible, I wanted to give Ivan (even while captive behind the walls of his tiny cage) a voice of his own and a story to tell.
I wanted to give him someone to protect, and the chance to be the mighty silverback he was always meant to be.” Said Theoneandonlyivan.com. Visit this site here.
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla, all he had to do was to play in his glass domain, watch people come see him, and wait to be fed. He Lives at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade with his friend Bob, Stella, and Julia. He is an artist his drawing is in a gift shop and is priced at a fair price. His friend Julia is a human. Ivan thinks that humans talk too much, wastes words, or eat words. Stella is an old elephant and Bob is a dog, that acts like Ivan’s companion. Their Ivan’s best friends
One day, a new baby animal comes. Her name is Ruby, and she is an elephant like Stella. She is young and sticks to Stella. She is here to perform in the rink with Mac. Mac is the owner of The Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Mac trains with Ruby, but she doesn’t go out without Stella.
On the other hand, though, Stella’s leg infections got worse, and nobody can do anything about it. And soon enough, she is too weak and sick to continue doing circus performing. While all of this is going on, Mac is losing money, as Stella stops performing. Mac thinks he could save some money by postponing a vet visit, (For Stella) but pays the price of Stella’s life and Ruby’s only friend, with guilt.
But as Stella’s slowly slipping away one night, she says to Ivan to protect Ruby even after she has passed away. She even made him promise to her that he would never let Ruby live the life of a Circus performer, because of her scary past experiences.
The next day, Stella was tossed into a garbage truck. Ivan, Bob, and Ruby could only sit in despair in their domains watching as their old friend was thrown out. They had lost a valuable friend that day.
Ivan, on the other hand, was thinking about his promise the Stella. He thought all day. “I Can’t talk, no human can understand me.” It was so hard for Ivan to think of a way to help Ruby, Ivan was just about to give up on Ruby’s freedom when Bob had the intention to tell Ivan that he can’t give up on Ruby, and always remember Stella’s last wish and the fact that Ivan had promised. Bob also wanted to say that this was a promise worth keeping.
When Julia comes she gives Ivan a paper and a red crayon. Ivan had an idea if he can’t talk why don’t draw it out? He tried to hide it from George Julia’s dad and the janitor. One day, when George was cleaning Ivan’s domain he found the papers hidden below the pool of filthy water and thought of selling them to the gift shop, Ivan did not give up.
He started over again and he made sure to be more careful. Finally the painting of his weeks’ hard work. Would it work, or would it miserably fail …? Ivan thought. It was time, Julia was drawing again instead of doing her homework. Ivan caught her attention. Ivan kept on showing the bundles of paper in his gorilla sized hands. Julia understood it was important at once and saw that when she put the pieces together it spelled H-O-M-E. HOME! They put it up on the billboard, with the help of George, Julia’s Dad. The next day protesters came to help Ruby out signs were saying “ Free Ruby, Animals should be treated like humans too”, “Ruby is free”, “Animals should be treated equally to us!” Then caught by the drama, some people from the zoo came and took Ruby and Ivan to a zoo. Finally Ruby was with other elephants and Ivan was with other gorillas. Bob was with Julia and George is going to be working at the zoo rather than the mall now. That concludes our summary of The One and Only Ivan.
We felt really sorry for Ruby and Stella throughout the book as they were treated with cruelty by Mac, who wanted only Fame, and the Paychecks that came with it.
The main Lessons that Ivan learned was to:
“Always keep your promises ” And
“Always protect the more vulnerable.”
My World 