Reading 11 · interview to moving · The One and Only Ivan

Copywork

I look, as I always do in Julia’s pictures, like an elegant fellow, but something is different about this drawing. In this picture, I am smiling.

I touch the box. I sniff the dark interior, where a ripe mango awaits.

Read the first passage aloud. In Julia’s last drawing, Ivan is smiling. She gives it to him on the night she cries. Who might that smile help more, Ivan or Julia?

Discussion

Narration Tell this reading back in order, from the man with the camera to the box that moves while Ivan sleeps.

A man with a camera asks to look around. Mack says, “Be my guest.” The camera stops on the claw-stick. Why does Mack let him look? Inference
Bob does not like the clicker. “They do that to dogs all the time,” he says. Is the zoo lady’s clicker so different from Mack’s claw-stick? Moral reasoning
All through this reading, Bob hides. On Julia’s last night, she can’t find him anywhere. What is Bob hiding from? Character
In Mack’s old photo, young Ivan sits in Mack’s car in a baseball cap, eating ice cream. Mack remembers the laughs. Ivan says he looks “ridiculous.” Were those good days for Ivan? Character
The last time Ivan was in a box, his sister Tag died. Now he is asleep in a box again. He dreams he is with Tag, swinging from vines. Is that dream a good sign or a sad one? Theme

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone had to leave friends behind to go somewhere new. What did they take with them, and what did they leave?

Vocabulary

protesters: Every day there are more protesters, and cameras with bright lights. People who gather in public, often with signs, to speak out against something.
associate: They want Ruby to associate the noise with the treat. To link two things in your mind, so one makes you think of the other.
shudder: I remember with a shudder the last box I was in. A sudden shake of the body from fear or a bad memory.
victorious: But I strut around my cage feeling victorious anyway. Feeling like the winner of a fight.
casually: he says casually, licking a paw In a relaxed way, as if it hardly matters.
belongings: He gathers up his tools and belongings while Julia runs to my cage. The things a person owns and carries along.
elegant: I look, as I always do in Julia’s pictures, like an elegant fellow Graceful and fine-looking, with style.
interior: I sniff the dark interior, where a ripe mango awaits. The inside of something, such as a box.
undaunted: I am untamed, undaunted. Not scared off or discouraged, whatever happens.
command: I wonder if I can ever command their respect. To earn something from others, such as respect, by the strength you show.

Critical thinking

Ivan says, “I have to do it.” He gives two reasons. Ruby is watching him, and the box is the way out. Which reason gets him inside?
Ruby calls from her box, “I don’t want to leave you.” Part of Ivan does not want her to leave either. He keeps that to himself. Should he have told her?
Ruby says the mall is her home because Ivan, Bob and Julia are there. Ivan tells her, “This is your prison.” Which of them is right?