Reading 2 · the loneliest gorilla in the world to wild · The One and Only Ivan

Copywork

At the Big Top Mall, no one bothers with iron shackles. A bristly rope tied to a bolt in the floor is all that’s required. “They think I’m too old to cause trouble,” Stella says. “Old age,” she says, “is a powerful disguise.”

Read the passage aloud. Stella says old age is “a powerful disguise.” What might it hide from the humans?

Discussion

Narration Tell back this reading in order, from the little boy at Ivan’s glass to Bob’s answer about having a home.

Visitors find it odd to see “a gorilla staring at tiny humans in a box.” Ivan asks, “Isn’t the way they stare at me, sitting in my tiny box, just as strange?” Is he making a joke, or saying something sad? Theme
The chains Stella wore when she was young left scars on her legs. She calls them her “bracelets.” What does that word let her do that “scars” would not? Character
Visitors are staying away, and Ivan wonders if they “have grown tired of” him. He plans to eat more, but Bob says, “The problem is not your appetite.” What do you think the problem is? Inference
For the educator The reading never says what the problem is, so the question is open on purpose. What Mack and the visitors say is the evidence.
Keepers, rats and a sparrow came through Ivan’s domain, but they “never stayed long.” When a puppy fell asleep on his belly, Ivan “didn’t move all night, for fear of waking Bob.” Why might Ivan be so afraid to wake him? Character
Humans seem fond of dogs, so Ivan asks Bob why he does not want a home. Bob says, “Everywhere is my home.” Why might Bob choose to stay a stray? Moral reasoning

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone said they were fine and you were not sure it was true. What made you wonder?

Vocabulary

undaunted: I am a wild beast, my friend: untamed and undaunted. Not scared off or discouraged, even after hard times.
wayward: I’d seen my share of rats zip past, and the occasional wayward sparrow had fluttered in through a hole in my ceiling. Wandering off the usual path to somewhere it was not expected to go.
glimpse: All night I sat wondering about the gorilla I’d glimpsed. To see something for only a moment.
dwell: I tried not to dwell on it. To keep thinking about something, especially something sad.
appetite: The problem is not your appetite. How much someone wants to eat.
disguise: “Old age,” she says, “is a powerful disguise.” Something that hides what someone really is, so that others are fooled.
shackles: At the Big Top Mall, no one bothers with iron shackles. Metal rings joined by chains, locked around the ankles or wrists to keep a prisoner, or an animal like Stella, from getting away.
linger: It’s true that some of my visitors don’t linger the way they used to. To stay in a place longer instead of hurrying away.
remarkable: Her trunk is remarkable, but still it can’t unlatch the door of her tumble-down domain. Unusual and worth noticing, like a trunk that can lift one peanut.

Critical thinking

Ivan wants to tell the crying boy, “With enough time, you can get used to almost anything.” But after he saw one gorilla on a nature show, he sat up “All night,” wondering. How far has Ivan gotten used to being alone?
Ivan has Stella and Bob, but no other gorilla. Can friends who are not gorillas keep him from being lonely?