The One and Only Ivan is a 2013 novel based on the story by Katherine Applegate and pictorials by Patricia Castelao. It is the story of a silverback gorilla called Ivan that lived in a mall in a cage, and it is written in the viewpoint of Ivan. It won the Newbery Medal in 2013. It has received a number of other awards, and is now nominated to a number of reading lists [2].
Plot
The
Ivan the Terrible story is set in the Exit 8 Big Top Mall beside the
Video Arcade. Ivan, the Silverback Gorilla, is an individual who by his
own calculation has spent 9,876 days in captivity at the Big Top Mall.
He resides in his world, and is, as a rule, satisfied with his
existence. He also sits and watches TV, he eats bananas and creates art
which is sold by the owner. Stella, an elephant, and Ivan, and
Bob
is an abandoned dog that resides at the mall. Stella is an elderly
elephant with a chronic injury in one of his legs and is a regular
performer in the daily shows. Even though Stella does not possess the
same memory as Ivan, she can recollect that she has lived elsewhere
before, such as the circus where she was taught most of her tricks. But
Stella wished to reside in a zoo, as there are far broader areas in
which to roam. Stella thinks that amends are made between humans by good
zoos.
Things change when Ruby, a baby elephant is taken to the Big
Top Mall to live with Stella and learn new tricks. The old injury that
Stella has makes her fall ill. Right before Stella dies of her ailment,
she requests Ivan to look after Ruby and get her a better home. Ivan
assures him that he will take care of Ruby, although he has no idea how
he would handle it.
Following the death of Stella, Ivan starts
recalling his life prior to the Big Top Mall and what it felt like to
have freedom just to have stories to share with Ruby. As Mack, the owner
of the Big Top Mall attempts to teach Ruby tricks, Ivan, having seen
with his own eyes the kind of treatment he has been giving her, begins
to think about how he can fulfill his promise to Stella.
After
Julia, the daughter of the custodian George, provides Ivan with a few
finger paints, he starts to work out how he can assist Ruby. He also
reverses his mind about the Big Top Mall. He does not consider his area
his domain anymore but a cage.
Through his art, Ivan creates a
big picture of the term home. Once Julia finds the letters and assembles
them and finds what Ivan is attempting to tell her, George and Julia
assist Ivan by taking it and putting it on the billboard outside the Big
Top Mall. Once the new signs are displayed, people start protesting
against the way the animals are treated. One of the investigators is
dispatched to the Big Top Mall and it is eventually shut down. Ivan,
Ruby and the other animals are carted off to a zoo. Ivan spends some
time in a white box, he only visits the zoo several times so that he can
be inured to life as a wild gorilla, but later he becomes the new
gorilla family member in the zoo. He then finds out that Bob was Julia's
pet and that he and Ruby had been adopted by the same Zoo and start to
adjust to their new surroundings and the other animals they now share
their lives with.
Characters
Ivan:
A friendly gorilla that has spent 27 years of his life in the Mall and
the Video Arcade in the Big Top. Ivan has been captive most of his life,
either in a human house, or in the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video
Arcade. He barely recalls his life prior to being captured, and has
become satisfied with the life he has in the mall. Later in the story,
Ivan realizes that he is not happy with his life and tries to rescue
both himself and Ruby by taking them both to zoo where they will spend
the rest of their life.
Stella: A very old elephant that had served
in a traveling circus and then was injured and sold to Mack. Stella can
remember long, and she would far rather live in a zoo. She gets Ivan to
promise that he will take care of Ruby in case she fails. She dies also
due to her foot infection.
Bob: A rogue dog that resides with Ivan in the territory. Bob is happy to be a homeless dog, and does not want to be taken into a human home. At the conclusion of the book, we are given the suggestion that Julia is taken in by her family.
Mack: The human who owns the small mall and works as a part-time clown at the circus; he bought Ivan when a poaching company caught him in his home in Africa. Mack has only limited appearances in the book. He seems to be a good man by and large. But his business is not going well and he cannot maintain the mall the same way he did it. It is his treatment of Stella and Ruby that ultimately causes Ivan to attempt to get Ruby relocated to a zoo.
George: The custodian of the human mall. George is an honest person and he takes care of animals and the mall. He is however ambivalenced to assist them since he fears losing his job.
Julia: The daughter of George who makes Ivan love drawing. Julia comes to assist Ivan with his mission of transporting Ruby and other animals to the zoo.
Ruby: This is a new baby elephant in the mall. Ruby has just recently lost her mother and she has never been trained to do circus tricks before. It is the way that Mack treats Ruby that eventually causes Ivan to attempt to find a means to save her. Another thing she is able to do is tell lies.
Thelma: a mall parrot who runs around repeating.
Murphy: One of the white rabbits in the circus whose work is to drive around in a small red fire truck and squirt people with a hose.
Kinyani: This is a female gorilla that Ivan encounters at the zoo.
Maya: The human owner of a zoo that takes Ivan and Ruby and all the animals of the Big Top Mall to the zoo.
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