History Literature / TheOneAndOnlyIvan

''The One and Only Ivan'' is a [[ChildrensLiterature Children's Novel]] by Creator/KAApplegate.

The book was released on January 17th, 2012. The work was adapted as a film on August 12th, 2020. A sequel, titled ''Literature/TheOneAndOnlyBob'', was published on May 5th, 2020.

* SavingTheWorldWithArt: Given his very limited life, Ivan's best idea for how to help Ruby is to paint a collage across many pieces of paper which shows her in the zoo he saw in a commercial, and to write HOME on it. It's difficult for humans to understand what he's portraying, but Julia and her father do put his work up on the sign and this gets plenty of attention, including from the zoo itself.
* SignificantNameShift: As a young gorilla living in a troop of ten, Ivan was named "Mud" thanks to his interest in painting with mud over any available surface, including his mother's back. Of course he had no way of conveying his name to humans, and as part of his determined effort to not think about the past and be content in his situation he fully adopted "Ivan".

* TooUnhappyToBeHungry: In his grief over Stella, Ivan doesn't ''totally'' neglect to eat, but he does lose a lot of his appetite.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: There was a real gorilla named Ivan living in a mall, whose life paralleled the book's story in many ways, but the specific events described in the book are all fictional.

* AngstySurvivingTwin: One of those things he tries not to think about is the death of his twin, Tag, who wasn't as able to roll with the punches.

* CreatorInJoke: Anyone who's read {{Literature/Animorphs}}, the author's infamous AlienInvasion series, knows that the mouthless alien Andalites smile with their eyes. So, apparently, do elephants.
--> She smiles sadly with her eyes, just a little, the way only elephants can do.
** There's also a mention of the "elephant cops" when Julia and her father are unhappy about Ruby's treatment and wish they could do something about it. In ''Animorphs'', Rachel once transforms into an elephant to confront an abusive circus employee, claiming she's from the "elephant police", and flings him into a tent.
* BittersweetEnding: In the end, Ruby and Ivan are taken away to a zoo and separated. Ivan has to slowly be introduced to new gorillas and learns, with difficulty how to interact with them. He gets to talk briefly with Bob on a clandestine visit and can see but not talk to Ruby, and knows that he and Ruby are still in cages, just larger and better ones. They'll never be free, but they can be happier here than in the mall.
** This ending was actually somewhat controversial and enough people protested it that Applegate wrote an open letter, just as she had with Animorphs, saying that the book ending with sadness was deliberate and a good thing - children know about sadness in the world and have to learn how to cope with it.

* LastRequest: [[spoiler:Stella's last request to Ivan was for him to get Ruby out of the mall.]]

* RoadApples: "Me-balls" are dried excrement packed into tight, [[DungFu throweable balls]]. Ivan wonders why humans never seem to carry them.

* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: There seems to be an animal language, for one, that lets elephants, dogs, and gorillas speak to each other. Ivan and Stella have a partial understanding of their situation that might be explained by them being long-lived and very intelligent animals, but Bob the dog seems to understand at least as much.
* AngerIsHealthyAesop: Ivan letting himself express his anger is what wins the day for him in the end. He chest-beats out of frustration, and Julia stops and reevaluates the paintings he's been pushing at her.

* CommonalityConnection: Julia, the daughter of the mall's night janitor, is an artist, and she and Ivan share a bit of understanding over this.

* BittersweetEnding: In the end, Ruby and Ivan are taken away to a zoo and separated. Ivan has to slowly be introduced to new gorillas and learns with difficulty how to interact with them. He gets to talk briefly with Bob on a clandestine visit and can see but not talk to Ruby, and knows that he and Ruby are still in cages, just larger and better ones. They'll never be free, but they can be happier here than in the mall.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: All the animals have this - Ivan's parents were killed by humans, who kidnapped him and his sister who then died. Subsequently he was purchased by Mack and treated as something between a pet and a child, then shut into a small room in the mall for decades. Stella and Ruby similarly were wild once and captured in bloody ways, then abused by humans. Bob was taken from his mother and flung into the road along with his littermates, who didn't roll out of the way of cars in time.
* DeathByNewberryMedal: Stella's end is foreshadowed early on by descriptions of her infected foot and Mack's unwillingness to call for a vet. Her LastRequest, death, and Ruby losing her supportive presence has Ivan shaken out of complacency and attempting to figure out a way to change their situation.

* GentleGorilla: Ivan is a very friendly and docile gorilla who develops a strong friendship with a dog and two elephants. He does have a much angrier side, but far from being a KillerGorilla, his deeply-buried impulses are more about expressing his buried unhappiness, and a desire to be taken seriously and respected, than any will to do violence.

* InterspeciesFriendship: Ivan, a gorilla, is friends with Bob, a dog, and Stella and Ruby, who are elephants.

* {{Xenofiction}}: Ivan is a gorilla and has ''some'' understanding of humans, as fellow great apes. Through long and patient effort he's learned to understand their language, but he still finds much of what they do to be mystifying.