The One and Only Ivan

Popular three book series get all three. Grandchildren absolutely love the stories

This CD was purchased as part of a 4th grade literature unit. My students loved it! It compliments the reading material perfectly. I enjoyed listening to it on a long trip - excellent company! You will not be disappointed if you decide to purchase it!

This book won the Newbery Medal for Children's Literature in 2013, and it was much deserved. Here's what the book has going for it: 1. The Targeted age of the reader: In recent years people have complained that the Newbery Medal was being awarded to books that were for an older demographic, like older teenagers. I'm not sure I agree with that, because when you read the earlier Newbery Medal books you can tell by the vocabulary and subject matter that the intent has always been for these books to enrich the young reader regardless of age. With that said, Ivan is a book that has a slightly younger age group in mind. Which is important as it will introduce the young reader to great stories spurring them on to try to read more Newbery Medal books. 2. The story is based on a true story. Ivan was real! The main parts of the story are true. This would be a great school book for a young, say 5th grade, class to read, and then research the true story. A simple Google search will turn up all kinds of information about the real Ivan, pictures and all. In turn this information could be used in projects and presentations. 3. I love the characters! I truly enjoyed getting to know every character presented in the story. From the animals to the humans, each one has a great personality that I really enjoyed. My two favorite characters were the young girl, Julia and the dog, Bob. The author could easily write more books about Ivan, and Julia and Bob. 4. The illustrations are nice, and very contemporary. What I didn't Like: 1. The book is separated out, but not into chapters. I wish she had done that. I really felt a "Charlotte's Web" vibe to this book. The plot and characters have some similarities that just made the book overall enjoyable to read. I recently heard that Disney has bought the movie rights to this story, and I hope that's correct. It would make a great movie!

A surprisingly sad book but an easy read. The ending makes it worth it. The writing is poetic, so might be best for middle school kids.

I'd heard so many good things about this book that I was eager to read it. And now that I have I have to agree with the wonderful things that I've been hearing. I loved it. Not only was the writing lyrical and beautiful to read, but the characters were heart-warming and sweet. The story revolves around Ivan, a silverback gorilla who lives in a mall where he performs with other animals in a small circus-like show. His best friends are a small stray dog named Bob and a former circus elephant named Stella. Their pretty routine life is interrupted with the arrival of a baby elephant named Ruby. Stella is determined that Ruby will not spend her life in a cage and so Ivan promises to help Ruby get out of this dead-end life. But how on earth is he going to do it? He is after all just a gorilla, or is he? This is definitely a story that makes you go, "ahhh" afterwords. But I personally love happy endings however realistic or unrealistic they may be. One needs to keep in mind however that this is animal FANTASY and as such is bound to have elements that are more believable than others. I prefer however to give the characters the benefit of the doubt and animals are much better at communicating than we as humans sometimes believe. As for intelligence, I've long believed that animals are far more intelligent than they are often given credit for. Plus, I love animals stories, so for me I found the story more than believable enough and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This one would make for great shared reading as well. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Wonderful book for kids. Well packaged and delivered promptly.

Splendido libro per bambino . Rilegato bene , caratteri grandi e la storia è entusiasmante . Consigliato per i bimbi . Niente da dire .

Wonderful fast easy poignant read for adults and kids 8 yrs and up.

A beautifully written story about friendship, hope, and the yearning for freedom. Ivan's journey from a life in captivity to finding his true home is both touching and inspiring. This book is a must-read for readers of all ages.

To be 100% honest, it was not for the positive reviews that I started reading this book, but for the negative ones: there is a particular review about "how this book made my infant child cry..." and I confess, a child's book with the potential to make you cry is everything I look for when reading. To my delight, the writing on this book is rather rich in content, yet economical in its words, just like the gorilla Ivan would want it. This book is a masterpiece in its simplicity, with its rather wit vocabulary and, at the same time, simple word games, the end may not have exceeded my expectations, but those are really hard to meet, and yet I know, what I read couldn't be any different from what is written here, otherwise, it wouldn't be honest