Have you ever read a book that makes you want to pull the characters into your arms, rock them gently and tell them everything is going to be OK? This is exactly what I wanted to do the whole way through Katherine Applegate’s beautiful story, The One and Only Ivan.
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.
Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.
Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home – and his own art – through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.
From the opening lines, ‘I am Ivan. I am a gorilla. It’s not as easy as it looks,’ you are transported into Ivan’s head and see the world through his eyes. You read everything Ivan thinks and remembers, sees, touches, tastes and smells. Ivan comes out with some real pearls of wisdom and I found myself writing down so many quotes that I wanted to remember later. Things like,
“In a Western, you can tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and the good guys always win. Bob says Westerns are nothing like real life.”
There is a real sadness to the story, because these once great majestic beasts are locked away in cages, but the friendships between them help them to deal with their situation and add humour to the story. It’s these friendships and Ivan’s need to protect Ruby that bring a sense of hope. Ivan wants Ruby to have a better life than the one that he has lead, locked up in the mall. Katherine Applegate’s writing is absolutely beautiful and I wanted to savour every word. The stream of consciousness writing style she has used for this book means that she has obviously chosen her words very carefully. Her writing is incredibly descriptive and, like Ivan, she paints a vibrant picture for you. This is my one of my favourite descriptions,
“Because she remembers everything, Stella knows many stories. I like colourful tales with black beginnings and stormy middles and cloudless blue-sky endings. But any story will do.”
I can’t recommend The One and Only Ivan highly enough. It’s a story that will affect you and the characters will stay with you long after you close the covers.
5 out of 5 stars
Jacinta’s father works as the groundsman for the local sports stadium, which they’ve nick-named The Field. While he tends to the needs of the stadium, Jacinta looks down on the world from the Crow’s Nest, the corporate box used by the big-wigs to get the best view of the games at the stadium. The Crow’s Nest is one of her favourite places in the world and she often pretends that she commands the players and places them where she wants them to go. She may not have her special place for much longer if the City Council gets its way and knocks down The Field to replace it with a carpark for the new stadium. It is while she is in the Crow’s Nest one day that Mother Mary appears to her in the television. Jacinta doesn’t know if she is going crazy and seeing things or whether her vision is real, but when Mary appears again the next day there is no doubt. Mary wants Jacinta to gather as many people as she can at The Field so that she can pass on a message. The only problem is trying to get her family and the rest of her town to believe her.
Imagine if you could live in a hotel. Not just any hotel, but one where each of the rooms had a different theme. If you like cuddly toys, you could live in a room full of cuddly toys of every size, colour and type. If you like Playstation, you could live in a virtual reality room where you could be a character in any game you chose. In Patrick Carman’s new book, Floors, Leo lives in the weirdest, most wonderful hotel in the whole world, the Whippet Hotel.
Old enemies awaken as Camp Half-Blood’s new arrivals prepare for war. When Jason, Piper and Leo crash land at Camp Half-Blood, they have no idea what to expect. Apparently this is the only safe place for children of the Greek Gods – despite the monsters roaming the woods and demigods practising archery with flaming arrows and explosives. But rumours of a terrible curse – and a missing hero – are flying around camp. It seems Jason, Piper and Leo are the chosen ones to embark on a terrifying new quest, which they must complete by the winter solstice. In just four days time. Can the trio succeed on this deadly mission – and what must they sacrifice in order to survive?
Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026. But all three have been given a second chance – to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history …Project Exodus – a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire – has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula. Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past. Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned – and under threat – how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right? This is book five in the bestselling TimeRiders series by Alex Scarrow. Ancient Rome gets a time-travel makeover!
Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship – or an early grave. Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word . . . especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra. If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood – not even from each other.
After falling into the icy waters of a frozen lake, Delaney Maxwell is officially dead for eleven minutes. Rescued by her friends, she is taken to hospital and falls into a coma, from which she is not expected to wake. Then, miraculously, she regains consciousness with few signs of damage to her brain. According to the doctors she should be a cabbage, but she seems to be fully functioning. But Delaney knows that something is very wrong. She is pulled by forces outside of her control and starts to have a series of seizures. Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying, but she doesn’t know if she is predicting death or causing it. As she struggles to come to terms with these strange feelings, she is drawn to the mysterious Troy Varga who seems to know what she is going through. Troy knows the truth about her ‘gift’ but will Delaney use it as Troy suggests or take a different path?
We’re introduced to the very cute Zoe and her loveable dog Beans in their first outing, Where is Binky Boo? Zoe loves her dolly, Molly, but so does Beans, ever since he lost his toy, called Binky Boo. Molly is the only toy he wants to play with, and when Zoe isn’t looking he takes it to show his doggy friends. But when Zoe washes Molly, Beans refuses to play with it. Beans is very unhappy, until they discover something ‘a little woolly something with a particular smell’ sticking out of the sandpit.
In The Magic Hoop, Zoe tries to get Beans to jump through her hoop, but Beans won’t have a bar of it. Zoe tempts Beans to go through the hoop using all his favourite treats, but when she throws Binky Boo through the hoop, the toy disappears. Beans jumps through to find his toy and magically turns into a rabbit. Zoe decides she doesn’t want a rabbit so makes Beans jump through again. Beans turns into a mouse, a crocodile and then an elephant! But elephants are big and the hoop is small. Will Zoe be able to get Beans back to normal or will he be stuck as an elephant forever?
Their most recent adventure was Christmas themed. In Zoe’s Christmas List, Zoe and Beans travel to the North Pole to deliver her letter to Father Christmas, and meet a cute, fluffy friend along the way. Their next adventure (due out in June 2012) is called Pants on the Moon and sounds fantastic! The illustrations are gorgeous and the stories are that rare blend of both cute and funny. Zoe is brimming with confidence and a love for adventure that children can relate to. Children will beg for them to be read again and again, and I’m sure parents will be only too willing to. Perfect for reading one-on-one or as a read-aloud for groups (a particular favourite at my library Story Time).
