Hello everyone! Happy Monday! This past week was focused on The One and Only Ivan. This book was so awesome, it completely exceeded my expectations. I can see why this is a Newbery Award winner. After reading the criteria that the committee considers, The One and Only Ivan fits all of these. The One and Only Ivan had a perfectly detailed setting and well developed characters. It is very easy to picture these characters even without the illustrations. This was my favorite thing about The One and Only Ivan. The plot was very well written as well. There is some flashbacks from Ivan but nothing that makes the reader confused. Since this book is for younger readers, this is a very risky ![]()
move because not a lot of writes can accomplished flashbacks correctly. They are either confusing or out of place of the story. With Ivan, the flashbacks help the plot. They show a lot of the reasoning for Ivan’s actions. While the plot was very well written, the characters were most effective for me. They were so well described in terms of their personality so you can really connect to them, even if they are a gorilla, elephant, or dog. This book was so emotional for me which I was not expecting. SPOILERS AHEAD… When Stella died I had to put down the book and take a break because I loved Stella because she was my favorite character and because she was so sweet to Ruby. I also had to power though the emotional end because it was so happy yet sad. When Bob got left behind is when it really got to me. Overall, this book is a 10/10 in my opinion. I would recommend this book over and over again because it was so great. I can definitely see myself using this book in my classroom.
Until next time,
-Rachel
*All images are from Amazon.com*
Rachel's Mind 