The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

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I'm not sure I know how to describe this book. I don't think I can do it justice.

It's written almost like free verse, with most chapters only a page, a handful of lines, long. Ivan is a wonderfully erudite gorilla living in an enclosure inside a mall, bringing a steady stream of visitors to an otherwise failing business. He talks to his friends Stella and Bob, makes art that his owner sells, and does his best not to remember his other life, his childhood in the jungle and the sister who was captured with him. He's perfectly happy. Honestly.

Applegate has packed a lot of emotion into a relatively short book. I couldn't put it down once I started reading. I'm really looking forward to the movie now, and I hope they stick as closely as possible to the story as presented here. This story doesn't need embellishing or changing; it's amazing just the way it is.

A wonderful read I'll be recommending to others.

BE AWARE an animal dies in the course of the story, and there are (very brief) flashbacks to hunters mutilating the bodies of Ivan's family.