The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

The One and Only Ivan (for ages 8-12) by Katherine Applegate is the story of a gorilla who lives at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, a circus-themed mall which houses monkeys, parrots, an elephant and a few other animals. Ivan’s friend, Stella, an elderly elephant performs in a show along with Snickers, the dog, three times a day, everyday of the year. The owner of the mall, Mack, dons the role of a clown during the show. Visitors to the mall also come to see Ivan, the mighty silverback (enclosed) inside his glass wall domain. Ivan has lived in his domain for nine thousand eight hundred and fifty five days, alone.

Ivan has another friend, 10 year old Julia who is the daughter of George, the mall’s Janitor. Ivan and Julia have something else in common, they are both good artists. Julia provides Ivan with crayons and paper. And Mack sells Ivan’s pictures at the gift shop. As the days go by, business starts going downhill for Mack’s mall and he decides to bring in a new addition to the Big Top Mall, a baby elephant named Ruby, to attract more visitors. Stella takes Ruby under her wing and makes her feel comfortable in her new environment. When Stella’s foot gets severely infected and she is near death, she extracts a promise from Ivan to make sure Ruby gets to a safe place and doesn’t end up spending her whole life enclosed inside a building.

Ivan is determined to keep his promise to Stella and how he does that using his talent as an artist to get Ruby to a better place to live ( a zoo) with Julia’s help forms the rest of the story. Told entirely from Ivan’s point of view, this story reveals to the young minds the trauma that animals endure when removed from their natural habitats and are made to live in confined domains, how they yearn for their families from whom they get separated and live in isolation without ever seeing another of their kind.

The one and only Ivan is inspired by the true story of Ivan, a real gorilla who was housed at a circus-themed mall in Washington State for almost three decades. After he was featured in a National Geographic special called “The Urban Gorilla”, there was a huge public outcry and Ivan was moved to Zoo Atlanta. Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan won the John Newbery Medal for the outstanding book of 2012.