The One and Only Ivan is told from the point of view of a gorilla who can understand human words, but who doesn’t “waste words” (2) like humans do. How does Ivan’s voice shape the story he tells? How would the story have been different if written from the perspective of a gorilla who couldn’t understand human language, or from a third-person point of view?

While Ivan and his elephant friends Stella and Ruby are confined to their mall cages, the other major animal character, Bob, is a stray dog with no “permanent address” (34). Why might Applegate have chosen to include an animal character whose life isn’t as directly controlled by humans? What purpose does Bob’s character serve in the novel?

Discuss how both Stella and Ivan change once Ruby arrives at the mall. How does the young elephant’s presence force the older animals to reexamine their own situations? How does Ruby reawaken natural instincts these animals would have experienced in the wild?