The One and Only Ivan

Will I ever not cry over a Katherine Applegate book? Probably not. Hype that I accidentally ended up reading this right before the movie release. Now I can watch it and complain about how it's different from the book!

I read a little over an hour of this and just could bring myself to come back to it. I saw it on my libraries digital audio so checked it out to see if I could finish it. I was recommended this by an aunt. So I had to talk myself into starting it again.

I found this story pretty depressing and upsetting. I would not read it too my 10 year old, especially since I would like her to have a love of reading. Many of the people that loved this talk about how this had them crying. Well, it had me mad at points and upset and depressed at others. There are deaths. Stella dies and makes Ivan promise to save Ruby. Ivan's sister dies on the trip over from Africa. But more than mad or upset I was a bit bored and felt the story disjointed. I never felt the talking of the gorilla to be true, it never quite clicked as real. We get thrown from him talking to the other animals, to painting, to Julie, getting little snippets of his life yet no direction or ability to go anywhere more.

So Ivan is a gorilla at a shopping mall as an attraction. He lives in a small cage and has other animal friends he talks to there, an elephant, Stella, and a dog. There is a girl named Julie too but she doesn't understand his talk. Stella is has a swollen bum ankle so a new baby elephant arrives, Ruby. Ruby has been treated poorly and Stella is not happy about a new animal at the mall. Ivan makes a promise to save Ruby yet he doesn't believe it himself.

So there is a happily ever after with him being taken to the zoo with a wide open space and other gorillas. His painting supposedly "saves" the animals at the mall by bringing attention to the plight of them all. And it was an OK story though I wish it were even shorter but being pretty depressing with the plight and treatment of the animals at the mall along with the death of some animals that were close to Ivan, I would not recommend this and won't be reading it with my daughter.

Two complaints in the story. Ivan promises something he does not intend to do since he does not believe himself able to do it. And, Ivan has to get angry and shouting mad in order for his paintings to be looked at more closely. So he has to shout in order to be listened to. Also that he is able to spell HOME just did not work for me. Gorilla's can be smart but they have to be taught too. made me appreciate the lesson of the story even less.