Author: Katherine Applegate
Illustrated by: Patricia Castelao
# of pages: 320 (This is about a second to third grade book, there are pictures and larger print)
Published by: Harper Collins 1st Edition
Award won: Newberry Medal 2013 and a New York Times Best Seller
Loosely
based off of a true story, The One and
Only Ivan takes place at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Locked
up in small domains, or cages, Ivan and Stella have not had interaction with
other animals of their individual species for years. Humans come and go every
day staring at them, through the class, yet little attention is paid to the
treatment of the animals. Ivan is a silverback gorilla who is misunderstood by
humans. He is a very smart and is an artist.
Stella is an elephant that lives at
the circus with Ivan. Throughout their time at the Circus at Exit 8 they have
become best friends. There is one other member of the clan named Bob, who is a
stray dog. Bob does not have a home, however he often sleeps in Ivan’s domain
on top of Ivan’s stomach. Bob was Ivan’s first close friend at the circus;
together they shared each other’s warmth, company, and friendship. When Stella
begins to grow old and the circus starts suffering financially, owner Mack
decides to bring in a new animal, hoping to attract more crowds. A baby
elephant named Ruby becomes the newest member of the family.
Stella, Ivan, Ruby, and Bob together
keep each other company. At nights they talk and comfort each other to sleep by
telling stories and jokes. Near the end of Stella’s life, Ivan makes a promise
to her saying he always take care of Ruby and to do his best to gain a better
life for the both of them. After Stella’s death, this promise is heavy on
Ivan’s heart. He decides to use his art to try and get a message across to the
humans.
Owner Mack would often give Ivan art
supplies, however it was never enough. George works at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall
and Video Arcade cleaning and doing maintenance work at night. His wife is ill,
however their family desperately needed money to live off of. George brings his
daughter Julia along with him to work. While she is there, she does her
homework, however, she often rushes through it so she can spend time with the
animals or drawing. Julia and Ivan have a special connection because she is an
artist too. Julia is one of the few people who can actually understand what
Ivan’s paintings are supposed to be. The night when Julia gave Ivan her extra
finger-paints everything changed.
Ivan was on a mission to fulfill his
promise to Stella. He noticed that humans paid so much attention to the large
bulletin board outside on the freeway, and he wanted to make his own. He
remembered Stella describing to him how wonderful it would be to live in a zoo
rather than a circus. In a zoo they would have enough food and room to play and
be free. Ivan’s goal was to get Ruby out of the circus, and into a zoo. With
financial struggles, Mack’s demands increased. Mack ordered for more artwork
from Ivan to make more money. Ivan would paint for Mack in the day and for
Stella at night. A main theme in the
book is that humans waste their words, it was very hard for Ivan to learn how
to use, spell, and even understand the meaning of words, but he knew he needed
to words in order to communicate with humans.
After countless hours of work, Ivan
shared his hidden masterpiece with Julia. George and Julia spent all night
putting it together and trying to determine it’s meaning. It was a large puzzle
the size of a billboard capturing a picture of Ruby in a zoo; the picture also
had the word “home” written on it. George and Julia shared this with the public
causing people to become upset and protestors to fight for the fair treatment
of circus animals. Things were about to change.
This book is an emotional
rollercoaster that touched on many difficult topics including animal cruelty,
illness, death, grieving, family heritage, financial suffrage, friendships, and
saying goodbye to someone you love. In the end, the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and
Video Arcade was closed down and both Ivan and Ruby were moved to the zoo.
George was able to get a job at the same zoo where Ruby and Ivan were. George
and Julia adopted Bob. Now they all are living in an environment where they are
properly taken care.
Watch the book trailer below:
- Teach about mountain gorillas
- Do a unit on art and different artists…especially Picasso because that becomes one of Ivan's nick names.
- Teach students about fair treatment of animals
- Lessons can be taught on similes and metaphors, because they are used often throughout the book.
Some Classroom Project Ideas Include:
- Get a stuffed gorilla, and have each student take him home for one day to be a zoo keeper. They have to introduce Ivan the gorilla to their own domain and habitat and then share their expanse with the class and write about it in their writer's notebook
- Have students make a family tree, this allows them to look back at who their ancestors are and where they came from.
- Students could make a bookmark at the beginning of the unit. They could decorate the bookmark according to the theme of the book, draw pictures of the characters or setting, and use it in their writer's notebook to keep track of what page they're on. They can add to it throughout the unit
- Character Characteristics Images: instead of using a venn diagram, pass out clipart of each animal that is a character in the story and have students gradually add characteristics and words or phrases or images inside that character that makes them unique from other characters. Then hand out a picture of a circus tent, and in this picture students will write what all of these characters have in common
- Teach students who Jane Goodall is and ask students if they would either like to donate/raise money to adopt a chimp on her website, we could name it after our class. Another option is to have students write letters to Jane Goodall asking her their questions.
- Perform art throughout the unit that resembles that of ivan's and other mentioned illustrators
- Have students illustrate a story board
Just for Fun: Here is a picture of the real Ivan the gorilla!
