The One and Only Ivan

Literary fiction · Fable

First published: 2012
Print length: 336 pagesHarper, 2020

Newbery Medal, 2013

Description

Ivan is a silverback gorilla who has spent nearly ten thousand days behind glass at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall in Washington state. He calls the enclosure his domain and fills his time with television, bananas, and pictures that the mall sells to visitors. His companions include Stella, an injured elephant who remembers wider spaces, and Bob, a stray dog who slips in and out of captivity. When Ruby, a baby elephant, arrives to learn tricks, Ivan begins to see their treatment differently. A promise to protect her forces him to imagine a home beyond the mall and discover how his art might reach the watching public. Told in Ivan’s spare, direct voice, the novel joins humor and sorrow in a story about captivity, responsibility, and communication.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Direct · Lyrical · Spare

Pace

Moderate

Tone

Hopeful · Humorous · Melancholic · Warm

Structure

Linear · Vignettes

Focus

Character · Relationships · Voice

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 1 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

Art and creativityFreedomFriendshipMoralityOppressionTransformation

About Katherine Applegate

Katherine Applegate writes fiction for children and young adults, moving between science-fiction series and fablelike novels centered on animals, trees, and other unlikely narrators. Across these forms, she uses direct prose and accessible premises to bring moral choices into focus. Animorphs places ordinary children with the power to become animals inside a covert struggle against alien invaders, where adventure repeatedly tests loyalty and compassion. The One and Only Ivan and Wishtree work on a quieter scale, using observant nonhuman voices to examine captivity, responsibility, prejudice, and belonging. Applegate keeps these concerns grounded in concrete acts: protecting a vulnerable companion, keeping a promise, welcoming a new neighbor, or deciding when silence is no longer enough. The One and Only Ivan, narrated by a gorilla confined in a shopping-mall enclosure, won the 2013 Newbery Medal.

The Stranger Open Library

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Harper
Language: English
ISBN: 9780063014145

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