The One and Only Ivan (The One and Only Ivan, #1)

by Katherine Applegate

I too find it hard to believe there is a connection across time and space, linking me to a race of ill-mannered clowns. Chimps. There’s no excuse for them.

Anger is precious. A silverback uses anger to maintain order and warn his troop of danger. When my father beat his chest, it was to say, Beware, listen, I am in charge. I am angry to protect you, because that is what I was born to do.

like an old beast too tired to push on.

cage,

Not “domain;” how much mental energy does it take to stay in “domain” mode?

Humans tossed them out of a truck onto the freeway when they were a few weeks old. Bob rolled into a ditch. The others did not.

The nonjudgmental/factual tone makes it even more heartbreaking

“There’s a difference,” Stella says gently, “between ‘can’t remember’ and ‘won’t remember.’”

Mack, who bought me and raised me and says I’m no longer cute.

The cruelty allowed by intimacy

“Tell us the Jambo story,”

I remember this. As a parent, now, I just want to throttle the dad, but Jambi was amazing

“A good zoo is how humans make amends.”

“I always tell the truth,” Stella replies. “Although I sometimes confuse the facts.”

a dog of uncertain heritage.”

A memory flashes past, surprising me. I think of my father, snoring peacefully under the sun while I try every trick I know to wake him. Perhaps, I realize, he wasn’t really such a sound sleeper after all.

a voice like dancing water.

knowing Before Mack, before Bob, even before Ruby, I know that Stella is gone. I know it the way you know that summer is over and winter is on its way. I just know. Stella once teased me that elephants are superior because they feel more joy and more grief than apes. “Your gorilla hearts are made of ice, Ivan,” she said, her eyes glittering. “Ours are made of fire.” Right now I would give all the yogurt raisins in all the world for a heart made of ice.

I felt this way before we confirmed I was miscarrying Felix. Beautiful.

It is the most beautiful mad I have ever heard.

I’m angry, at last. I have someone to protect.

BLM Pro-life movement Jesus Righteous anger

I have to do it. Ruby is watching me from between the bars of her cage, and this box is the way out. I step inside.

Sky. Grass. Tree. Ant. Stick. Bird. Dirt. Cloud. Wind. Flower. Rock. Rain.

Adam naming everything in the garden

seemed there were many ways to leave the world forever.