I’m not big on animal stories — particularly those that are fiction but based on a true story and extra particularly those written for kids. They’re just … too much.
So I didn’t expect to love The One and Only Ivan. The only thing it had going for it, in my early opinion, was that it was written by Katherina Applegate (who I really like.)
Turns out, I’m a sucker for books about gorillas and elephants and stray dogs and such. I’m awfully sad that I didn’t go to the Atlanta zoo and see Ivan in person before he passed away. That would have been cool. It also would have been cool if Ivan had really done all of those things to get himself and Ruby to the zoo…