The One and Only Ivan: A Newbery Award Winner

I am a 3rd Grade teacher and we used this book for a book study. It is an amazing book that teaches a lot about perseverance and friendship. I would highly recommend reading it.

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.

Fun book. A bit over my grandson's reading level, but he'll grow into it and for now enjoys having it read to him.

I bought it for my daughter. I really liked the book. We read it before bed. It arrived quickly and in good condition. The book is beautiful.

This is book #7 on my Recommended By Friends list! Another one of my favorite people, who doesn’t get to read “grown up” books, wasn’t going to play along when I asked for recs. As a mom and a teacher, I knew she’d still have some solid books for me, even if they are labeled for kids!! With a few ideas to pick from, I remembered this title right off the bat. She’d mentioned it before, and her family even went to ‘meet’ Ivan!! So I knew this was the one.In the beginning, I was all happy learning about Ivan and his friends - Stella, Bob, Julia, even the Macaw named Thelma!! I love that Bob is not a fan of people, but lets Julia close. Ivan sleeps with a stuffed gorilla every night, a gift from Julia, that he named Not-Tag after his sister. And Ivan’s an artist!! Who sometimes eats his crayons!!But then it gets really depressing. A new baby elephant comes. She’s malnourished and seems to have been tortured. Mack is an awful human who doesn’t get Stella the help she needs. Then he continues to torture Ruby by bolting her foot to the floor. I do not like this man!!Ivan paints a billboard size picture of Ruby in a zoo for Julia to see. Thanks to her & George, it brings a ton of attention, protestors, inspections. Things happen fast after that, and the zoo people come to get the animals to a better place.At the zoo, Ivan is alone. But then he is slowly introduced to a gorilla family, which will be his own. It’s sweet. And then Julia and Bob come to visit!!This is a beautiful story about a real silverback who had a horrible first half of his life. I love the truth to it, as well as the fictional bits to turn it into a chapter book for the kiddos.

What a good story! It is a bit sad, but the ending is fabulous! I like that the importance of relationships is a theme woven from beginning to end!

Birthday gift for my nine year old granddaughter. I was concerned that it might be too overwhelming for her because it’s a pretty hefty book, so I read it first. Took me a day and a half because I had stuff to do—but it was hard to put down. I mailed it off knowing she would love the story. That was a few days ago and she’s nearly halfway through even though she has many school and sports activities. She called me and asked if she could read some to me over the phone. What a delight! Now we can hardly wait for the One and Only Bob!

its a great book my kids love it so much 10/10 recommend for childeren