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

by Katherine Applegate

[sa090]

Needed to listen to an audiobook for Herbology’s A grade and the One and Only Ivan was my choice for this category. The shortness of the audiobook is one thing, but more so because I wanted to see the way Katherine Applegate wrote the point of view from an animal’s. Read the Builders once and that was a very interesting experience, so maybe this one would be too and it was.

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It’s not easy writing from the perspective of someone or something different than yourself, but I think that Katherine Applegate did a pretty good job of showing me the thought process of these animals. I like transition based stories where the characters accept the norm and then they realize that it’s not the norm at all, it shouldn’t be like this and a change needs to happen. The book is told from Ivan’s perspective who have accepted that his situation has always been the case given how long he’s been in it, before some things happen and he realizes that no, it’s not.

I would say that the way the change did happen had some fantastical elements, but then again, seeing the power media holds in the world at the current time, makes me think that some thing like the tale’s progression could easily happen if certain conditions were met. I’m personally not a big fan of animals, but I did enjoy the hell out of being in Ivan’s head and seeing how he will come up with solutions for the situation. The story’s chapters are very short, the longest is only a few pages long, but even then Katherine Applegate makes imagining the situations pretty fun.

I did listen to an Audiobook for this particular book because the prompt for an A in Herbology requires me to do so for the NEWTs of 2019, and thankfully it was pretty fun. The narrator does a pretty good job of delivering Ivan’s persona to me just the way I imagine it would be from Applegate’s description, to be very honest, the characters were easily the highlight of the book, both animals and humans. I especially liked Stella, she had some very badass pieces of wisdom to deliver, such as the below:

“They think I’m too old to cause trouble,” Stella says.

“Old age,” she says, “is a powerful disguise.”

I got literal chills when I heard that, Stella was easily the first character that interested me in the book and hearing that just sealed the deal for me. I did wish that I got to see the view from a human’s eyes, but I guess that POV is filled by my own eyes so I’ll be happy with what I got :)

Final rating: 4/5