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The One and Only Ivan
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Stella tells Ivan there is a difference between “can’t remember” and “won’t remember.” Should Ivan try to remember, or is he better off forgetting?
The tension Ivan says he may be “a little tired of my domain”; Bob answers, “That’s because it’s a cage,” and Stella offers a gentler name, “It’s a very small domain,” so one place is named three ways in a single conversation.
Ways of looking: visitors who taunt through the glass, Mack who sees scribbles and money, Julia who studies a thing until she knows it, and Ivan, pushed at night to look at his own domain and his own past.
Ten short scenes, told by Ivan. Mack hands him a yellow crayon and ten pieces of paper, and Ivan draws ten bananas. A boy spits at his window and a girl throws pebbles. They come back, and Ivan ends up sorry about what he called them. Julia, who sits by his domain while her father George cleans the mall, draws Bob and gives him his name. Mack stares at Ivan over a brown bottle and gives George money for crayons. That night Ivan tells Stella he may be tired of his domain, and she sends him back to the keepers he has known. The reading closes with the beetle. Mack says Ivan’s drawing is “a picture of nothing.” Julia finds the beetle in it.
Ask the student who looks at Ivan in this reading and what each one seems to see: the visitors at the glass, Mack with his bottle, Julia with her pencil. Jot the answers down and come back to them when the talk reaches the beetle.
Retell The student tells the reading back in order, from the yellow crayon to the beetle. Listen for the night talk with Stella and Bob, which comes just before the beetle and is easy to skip, and for each person who looks at Ivan and what that person does next.
Imitate the author After copying the two passages, the student writes two sentences of their own in the same pattern: one that says how someone looked at a person, an animal or a thing, and one with a “but” that says what the long look showed.
Debate Take sides on the closing question. One side argues that Ivan should try to remember, the other that he is better off forgetting. Each side uses the keepers Ivan calls back and Stella’s two phrases, then answers the strongest point the other side made.
Purpose The reading practices looking closely before judging. Julia does it with a nameless little dog and a drawing Mack waves away, and Stella asks Ivan to do it with his own past. The student leaves able to give a reason on each side and say which one the lines support.
Easier Read the night talk aloud together, from Stella’s “Of course you can” to Gerald and the strawberries. Talk through the glass question and the keepers question only. For the closing question, ask the student to name two keepers Ivan calls back and say how each memory feels. One sentence for remembering and one for forgetting is enough.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions, then have the student write the three written answers in complete sentences, each resting on one or two lines from the reading. Before the student writes the closing answer, ask for one reason on each side and listen for the keepers by name.
Harder Set the ten bananas beside the beetle. For the yellow crayon Ivan scans his domain and draws one banana, then nine more. For the black crayon he says, “It’s hard, making a picture of something new.” Ask what the beetle takes from Ivan that the bananas did not, and what remembering might take from him.
1. The boy spits at Ivan’s window, and the girl throws pebbles. Ivan says, “Sometimes I’m glad the glass is there.” After the visitors come back, he says, “Sometimes I wish the glass were not there.” Why might the glass feel so different to him the second time?Character
What it asks It asks why one pane of glass first protects Ivan and then bothers him, and what Ivan wants from the visitors in between.
The glass first keeps the spit and pebbles away from him. The second time he wants to answer the visitors, and the glass is in his way.
The boy spits at my window. The girl throws a handful of pebbles.
“Slimy chimps,” I mutter. I throw a me-ball at them.
The glass keeps Ivan a show to watch and never someone to meet. After he puts on the show a second time, he wishes nothing stood between him and the people on the other side.
I strut across my domain for them.
I display my impressive teeth. I splash in my filthy pool. I grunt and hoot. I eat and eat and eat some more.
A strong answer A strong answer sees that one pane does two jobs. The first time, the boy spits and the girl throws pebbles, and the glass stands between them and Ivan. The second time, after he shows his teeth, calls them “Slimy chimps” and throws a me-ball, the same glass may be the thing that stops him from doing more. A strong answer might say he wants to answer the visitors, or that he wants to be more to them than a show. It can also notice that the reading does not say which.
2. Ivan says he is sorry for calling the visitors “slimy chimps.” Then he says, “My mother would be ashamed of me.” Why might Ivan think of his mother when he feels sorry?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks what Ivan’s thought of his mother shows about the way he judges himself, from one line and no more.
His mother is the standard he holds himself to. He knows how she would want him to act, and he can see that he fell short.
My mother would be ashamed of me.
His mother comes back to him when he feels shame. It is a glimpse of a past he later says he cannot remember much of.
My mother would be ashamed of me.
“You know I can’t remember much,” I say.
A strong answer A strong answer notices how little the reading gives. Ivan’s mother comes up only once, in this one line. That is enough to show he judges himself by a standard that is not the visitors’. It might mean her good opinion still matters to him. It might mean that his mother comes back to him in the moment he feels shame. Later Ivan tells Stella, “You know I can’t remember much,” so the two lines make an odd pair. Either way, no one in the reading tells him to be sorry, and no one is shown hearing him say it. The reading says nothing more about his mother.
3. Mall workers called, “Here, doggie,” and held out food, but the little dog always ran off. Julia watched him for a long time, and then she drew him. His name was under her picture. She said, “I had to draw him first.” Why might she have to draw him before she knew his name?Inference
What it asks It asks why a name comes after a long look, and what drawing gives that calling out does not.
A name has to be earned by knowing someone. Julia watches until she understands Bob, and the name follows from that.
First she watched him for a long time, chewing on her thumbnail.
I could tell she was looking at him the way an artist looks at the world when she’s trying to understand it.
The workers want something from Bob, so he runs. Julia asks nothing of him, so he stays curled in his corner while she draws.
Now and then a mall worker would try to approach him with a tidbit.
But he would always vanish into the shadows before anyone could get too close.
One afternoon, Julia decided to draw the little dog curled up in the corner of my domain.
A strong answer A strong answer sets the workers beside Julia. They call out and hold out food, and Bob vanishes. Julia watches him “for a long time” and draws. The name is on the page when she finishes, which fits her line, “I had to draw him first.” It might mean she could only find his name by looking until she understood him. It might mean she had to stop asking for his attention before he gave it. The reading never says how the name came to her, so a strong answer stays with what the looking and the drawing do.
4. Mack picks up Ivan’s first drawing. “Another day, another scribble,” he says. Later he gives George money to buy Julia “some more crayons.” Why might the same man do both?Character
What it asks It asks the student to hold two sides of Mack at once, the man who mocks the drawings and the man who pays for crayons, without settling on only one.
Mack is rough on the surface and kind underneath, and he does not want to be thanked for it.
“Here,” Mack says with a shrug.
Mack is already out the door before George can yell “Thanks!”
There is no clash. Mack scorns the drawings and still helps the people around them: he sounds unconvinced about Julia’s flying dog, but he asks after her mother.
“Hmm,” Mack murmurs, sounding unconvinced.
How’s the wife doing, anyway?
A strong answer A strong answer keeps both Macks. He calls Ivan’s picture “Another day, another scribble,” and he tells Ivan, “Time to earn your keep, Picasso,” as he hands over the crayon. But he also asks after George’s wife, and he pulls out a crumpled bill and presses it into George’s hand to buy “some more crayons.” Then he leaves before anyone can thank him. Some readers will say the mocking is only his rough way of talking, and the money shows who he is. Others will say there is no clash, because he scorns the drawings and still helps the people around them. The reading gives no reason for how Mack acts, so a strong answer reasons from what he says and does, and does not decide he is only cruel or only kind.
5. Ivan says, “Gerald was my favorite keeper.” But the person he remembers most is Mack, “day in and day out, year after year after year.” Why might Ivan remember Mack more than his favorite?Inference
What it asks It asks why the person who fills Ivan’s memory is not the one he liked best, and what that suggests about which memories stay with him.
Mack is simply there the most. He has been in Ivan’s days for years, and he is still the one who feeds him.
Mack, who bought me and raised me and says I’m no longer cute.
These days, George cleans my cage and Mack is the one who feeds me.
The kind keepers are remembered for small things: a coconut, a song, a box of strawberries. Mack is the long, ordinary run of days, so he fills the memory without any one bright moment.
I remember how he gave me a coconut when I was still a juvenile.
And there was Gerald, who once brought me a box of fat, sweet strawberries.
day in and day out, year after year after year
A strong answer A strong answer starts from the list: a coconut from Karl, Pepsis from Juan, a poke from Katrina’s broom, a song from Ellen, strawberries from Gerald. Each is one small thing a keeper did, and Gerald, the favorite, is remembered for one box of strawberries. Mack is not on that list, since Ivan says he has not had “a real keeper in a long time.” Mack is a different kind of memory: “day in and day out, year after year after year.” He is also the man who “bought me and raised me and says I’m no longer cute.” A strong answer might say Mack stands out because he has been there longest, or because what he says weighs more than a kind gift. It can also notice that Ivan does not say whether he wants to recall him.
1. Mack sees “A big, black nothing” in Ivan’s drawing. Julia finds a beetle and says, “I know a beetle when I see one.” Does Julia understand Ivan, or only his drawing?
What it asks It asks how much one good reading of a drawing shows about the one who made it, without claiming that Julia knows what Ivan thinks.
She understands him. She finds the beetle where Mack finds nothing, and in her pictures Ivan notices that he always looks a bit sad.
Julia tilts her head. She squeezes one eye shut. Then she opens her eye and scans my domain.
I always look a bit sad, though.
She understands one drawing, not Ivan. She reads the beetle because there is a real beetle to match, and Ivan still cannot tell her what he thinks.
“I know!” she exclaims. “It’s a beetle! See that beetle over there by Ivan’s pool?”
Or perhaps it’s because I can’t talk back.
A strong answer A strong answer takes a side and rests it on lines. It might say Julia does understand Ivan: she looks at the drawing, scans the domain and finds the beetle Mack missed, and of her own pictures Ivan says, “I always look a bit sad, though.” Or it might say she understands only a drawing: she matches it to a real beetle, but Ivan says, “I can’t talk back.” So she cannot check what he thinks. A strong answer notices that Julia reads one drawing well, and that the reading shows no moment where she asks Ivan anything.
2. Ivan says, “I think I may be a little tired of my domain.” Bob answers, “That’s because it’s a cage,” and Stella says, “It’s a very small domain.” Why might Stella use Ivan’s word and not Bob’s?
What it asks It asks why Stella keeps Ivan’s word for the place after Bob names it plainly, and what her choice of word does for Ivan.
Stella is being kind. She seems to agree with Bob, since she starts with “I know,” but she keeps Ivan’s word so the hard part lands softly.
Bob is not always tactful.
“I know,” Stella says. “It’s a very small domain.”
Stella wants to turn Ivan away from what he cannot change and toward what might help him tonight. Soon after, she offers him food and then a good day to remember.
“Try eating something,” Stella says. “That always makes you happy.”
“You could try remembering a good day,” Stella suggests.
A strong answer A strong answer looks at the whole exchange. Bob says, “That’s because it’s a cage,” and Ivan tells us, “Bob is not always tactful.” Stella starts with “I know,” which may mean she agrees with Bob, and then keeps Ivan’s word: “It’s a very small domain.” A strong answer might say she is being kind, letting the truth in without taking away the word Ivan uses for his home. It might say she wants to turn him from what he cannot change, since she soon offers him food and a good day to remember. It can also notice that Ivan says Bob’s word himself later that night: “George cleans my cage.” Ivan says only that he “may be a little tired” of his domain, so a strong answer does not claim he means to leave it.
3. Stella tells Ivan there is a difference between “can’t remember” and “won’t remember.” Should Ivan try to remember, or is he better off forgetting?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh Stella’s advice against Ivan’s habit of not remembering, with a reason on each side, before taking a side.
Ivan should try to remember. Stella says memories help tell us who we are, and some of the keepers he calls back are good ones.
They help tell us who we are.
I remember how he gave me a coconut when I was still a juvenile.
Gerald was my favorite keeper.
Ivan is better off forgetting. He tells us he has had a lot of time to work on not remembering, and the person he recalls most is Mack.
Not remembering can be difficult, but I’ve had a lot of time to work on it.
Katrina, who used to poke me with a broom when I was sleeping
Mack, who bought me and raised me and says I’m no longer cute.
A strong answer A strong answer picks a side and gives the other side its due. For remembering, Stella says memories “help tell us who we are.” The keepers Ivan calls back include good ones, such as Karl’s coconut that took all day to open and Gerald’s strawberries. For forgetting, Ivan tells us, “I’ve had a lot of time to work on it.” The person he recalls most is Mack, who “says I’m no longer cute.” A strong answer might say remembering is worth the hurt because the good keepers come back with the bad. It might say forgetting is a fair way to get through a night in a small domain. The reading does not say what Ivan has worked at not remembering, so a strong answer does not claim to know.