Today, I am reviewing The One and Only Ivan, the book which won the 2013 Newberry Medal. I chose to read it for a variety of reason, the main one being that I saw Katherine Applegate speak at a Children's Lit Conference in my town about a month ago. Also, it did win the Newberry, so that is definitely one up for it. The final reason is that it is based of the true story of a gorilla who lived in a mall for 27 years before finally being taken to a zoo. That story line would never had attracted me except for the fact that the real mall where Ivan lived was about two hours from where I live. Ask any adult in this area, and they all know who he is, whether or not they ever saw him when they were a child.
I think it is important to have reasonable expectations for any book you read, and that is especially true for this one. I think that this book is quite good for what it is. I am much of a fan of Katherine Applegate, or of her husband, Michael Grant, but if I forgot about that bias that I have, and tried to fairly judge that book against others of it kind that I have read, I think that it was quite good.
I'm not sure if it makes a lot of sense to judge this book in three ways (character, plot, and writing) like I do with most books, so I will just do them all in one sentence. The characters were good, and mostly believable, if you find talking animals believable; the plot was good, and did a good job of combining fact with fiction to make a good story that was still true to the facts; and the writing was well done for its target age. The writing could bother you if you were expecting it to be written for adults or teenagers, but it is not. It is written in a way that kids can understand and appreciate with out challenging them so much that they get frusterated.
So, my advice is, if the synopsis sound interesting to you, read this book, but keep in mind the intending audience, especially if you are not in it.
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