They make for patient, careful reading and listening.

Most of Ivan’s chapters consist of carefully crafted single sentence paragraphs. He tells us bluntly: “Humans waste words.” “Homework,” he discovers, “involves a sharp pencil and thick books and long sighs.” And when he finally meets other gorillas: “Is there anything sweeter than the touch of another as she pulls a dead bug from your fur?” He is a keen observer and an affecting narrator: melancholy, witty, and wise. The One and Only Ivan is written in the first person so the reader experiences everything from Ivan’s perspective – his life, his past, his current domain, his friends, his hopes, his dreams. Mostly I watch the world go by and think about naps and bananas and yogurt raisins. With the help of his friends, he manages to save himself, too. Inspired by Stella’s wisdom, Ivan eventually resolves to do something to save young Ruby from the mall circus. What else is yellow? I wonder, scanning my domain. Through drawing, he is able to find a way of expressing himself and his inner feelings so that others them can see, too. It is Julia who encourages Ivan to draw with crayons and finger paints. Ivan forms a special relationship with Julia, the daughter of the mall custodian, a relationship not unlike Wilbur and Fern in Charlotte’s Web. Ivan’s friends are Stella, an aging elephant Bob, a runaway dog who sleeps in his cage and Ruby, a new young elephant.

Ivan has been brought to the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade in Washington State to entertain tourists. It’s a story told from Ivan’s perspective in an unforgettable, clear, moving prose style, through sentences and sentiments so honed that they read like haiku. Ivan manages, thanks to an array of supporters, to survive and flourish and discover a new and better habitat.

It’s the story of a silverback gorilla, forsaken as a shopping mall attraction. The One and Only Ivan, winner of the 2013 Newbery medal, is a very special book.

The one and ivan book