The One and Only Ivan - review

This was the 2013 Newberry Award winner, and I wasn't impressed in the beginning.  I was a bit bored even.  

Okay, I'll give its interesting point-of-view (from the perspective of a silverback gorilla), and simple life observations - but it was the same feeling you get when you walk into a small town gas station with cheesy music playing in the background and the cashier popping her gum out of boredom.  

Ivan was taken captive at a young age, and his twin sister died in transport - he has little recollection the event until later in the story - because he has a very limited memory.  His caretaker raised him in his home, and then put him on display in the Big Top Mall along with an old circus elephant, a dog, and a parrot.  The janitor's daughter visits him at night and draws pictures - eventually passing on crayons to him.  Sometimes he eats them, sometimes he draws.  His drawings are basic things in his life.  Usually a banana.

Boring.

But then the owner of the Big Top Mall brings in a baby elephant, and shortly after the older elephant dies from an infection.  Ivan promises his elephant friend that he will take care of the young elephant so that she will not be raised in a cage.  From this points, Ivan's desires change - after 24 years on display, he is pushed to dream of something new and better for himself and his young friend.  

And the story became a sweet one where he communicates his desires through drawing, and to his young human friend, and eventually the news and media get involved about the inhumane treatment of the animals at the Big Top Mall.  It wasn't a strong story, but fun and interesting - and I learned at the end - inspired by real events involving a silverback gorilla on display at a mall and eventually transferred and acclimated to a zoo.