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

by Katherine Applegate

The names are mine, but they’re not me.

understanding human speech is not the same as understanding humans.

Humans speak too much. They chatter like chimps, crowding the world with their noise even when they have nothing to say.

With enough time, you can get used to almost anything.

Stella loves the moon, with its untroubled smile.

“Memories are precious,” Stella adds. “They help tell us who we are.

I like colorful tales with black beginnings and stormy middles and cloudless blue-sky endings. But any story will do.

“Everyone has parents,” Bob explains. “It’s unavoidable.”

I know it the way you know that summer is over and winter is on its way. I just know.

Growing up gorilla is just like any other kind of growing up. You make mistakes. You play. You learn. You do it all over again.

“A zoo, Ruby, is a place where humans make amends. A good zoo is a place where humans care for animals and keep them safe.”

There I am: the One and Only Ivan, bathed in the pink light of dawn. I look so angry, with my furrowed brow and clenched fists. I look the way my father did, the day the men came. I am, I suppose, a peaceful sort. Mostly I watch the world go by and think about naps and bananas and yogurt raisins. But inside me, hidden, is another Ivan. He could tear a grown man’s limbs off his body.

“I can’t explain it,” I tell him. “It’s an idea in my head, but I can’t get it right. And anyway, I’m almost out of supplies. I should have known I wouldn’t have enough.” I kick at my tire swing. It’s spattered with drops of blue paint. “It’s a stupid idea.” “I doubt that,” Bob says. “Smelly, yes. Stupid? Never.”

It’s a wild cage. A zoo. I see where it begins, and where it ends, the wall that says you are this and we are that and that is how it will always be. It’s not a perfect place. Even in just a few fleeting seconds on my TV screen, I can see that. A perfect place would not need walls. But it’s the place I need.

I look out my window at the billboard. I can still hear Mack’s voice in my head: “COME TO THE EXIT 8 BIG TOP MALL AND VIDEO ARCADE, HOME OF THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, MIGHTY SILVERBACK!” I count to twelve, and then I count again, just to be sure.

Is there anything sweeter than the touch of another as she pulls a dead bug from your fur?