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The One and Only Ivan
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Ivan once told Stella, “You would have been good at protecting, too,” but Stella gazed at the iron bars and said, “I’m not sure at all.” Who is right?
The tension Comfort is everywhere in the reading, from trunks “twirled together like jungle vines” to Ruby's laugh at Ivan's banana, but every story of protection in it is a story of failure: Ruby's family killed by humans, her feet chained at the old circus, Stella's infected foot left to Mack's “Money’s tight, though.”
Ivan’s turn from dodging Ruby’s questions to drawing for her at dawn, and the memories of being cared for that come back to him along the way.
Ruby’s trunk pokes through the bars on her first morning, and between questions she tells Ivan that humans killed her family. Stella spends the morning stroking her. Mack and George paste a cartoon elephant in a red hat on the billboard. Ruby’s questions wear Ivan out until he says he is sleepy, and a memory of his father snoring in the sun comes back to him. George tells Mack that Stella’s foot is infected again, and Mack puts off the vet. At dawn Ruby tells of her chained feet and asks for a joke; Ivan draws her a refrigerator and a banana, and her laugh brings back a yellow bird from his mother’s nest. The reading ends on an older talk in which Stella calls protecting the hardest part of raising young ones and looks at her iron bars.
Start with Ruby’s first morning and her question “where are the other elephants?” Ask the student what Ivan feels when he answers. Then follow Ivan from closing his eyes on Ruby to sitting up at dawn to draw for her, and stop at the yellow bird. End with the last section read aloud, and let the student look at the bars with Stella before anyone talks.
Retell The student tells the reading back in order: Ruby’s hello and her family, the morning with Stella, the billboard, the art lesson and the memory of Ivan’s father, George and Mack at the treat, the jokes at dawn, and last, the talk about babies. Listen for the student to notice that the last section is a memory (“Once I asked Stella”), told in the past, not the next thing that happens.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two or three sentences of their own about a sound that brought back a memory. Ask for one comparison with “like,” and one sentence that is a single word, the way Ivan says “Strange.”
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists from the reading: what Ivan and Stella give Ruby (pictures, a joke, stroking, rumbling) and what has hurt her or could (the humans who killed her family, the chains, Stella’s sore foot). Then each side gives one reason from its list about whether care can keep Ruby safe here, and answers the other side’s reason.
Purpose Close by asking why the author ends Ivan’s day on an old talk and not on Ruby’s laugh. The student should leave this reading’s last line as open as the author does: Stella says “I’m not sure at all,” and the reading does not say who is right.
Easier Read the dawn scene aloud together, from “Ivan? Bob?” to “Good one,” and talk through the last two discussion questions. Then retell the refrigerator and banana drawings, look at the bars around Stella, and talk about what a laugh can and cannot do for Ruby before answering the last written question aloud.
On level Talk through all six discussion questions in order, then have the student write answers to both written questions, each with a reason and a detail from the reading.
Harder Ask the student to trace Ivan’s change from dodging Ruby’s questions to drawing for her, and tie it to his guess about his father. Then test an objection: Ivan is only enjoying himself, because he says “It’s a good feeling, making Ruby laugh.” Does that make his drawing less of a gift?
1. Ruby asks where the other elephants are, and Ivan feels “we have let her down.” He did not bring her here. So why does he count himself in?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to puzzle over one small word. Ivan had no part in bringing Ruby here, yet on her first morning he lists himself among those who have failed her. The answer shows what the student thinks a young elephant is owed, and how far short of it the mall falls.
“We” means the grown-ups at the mall. Ruby should have a whole herd around her, and all she has is Stella, Ivan and Bob, so the ones who are here feel the gap as their own.
“It’s just you and Stella,” I say
Before the circus, I used to live with my mom and my aunts and my sisters and my cousins
“We” means Ivan and Stella, the only ones of their kinds. Ivan has no family here either, so he hears his own loss in Ruby’s question.
“Are there more of you?”
“Not,” I say, “at the moment.”
“Well … I used to.”
A strong answer A strong response might say that “we” reaches past Ivan himself. Ruby lived with her “mom and my aunts and my sisters and my cousins,” and now she has one elephant, a gorilla and a dog, so the grown-ups here feel how little they add up to. Another reading hears Ivan’s own loss: asked if there are more gorillas, he says “Not,” and then “at the moment.” Either way, Ivan feels he owes Ruby something before the reading shows him doing anything for her.
2. Ivan thinks he could have drawn Ruby better than the billboard. But the billboard is there to make cars stop. Would a true picture of Ruby bring more people, or fewer?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to think about what the billboard is for. It “tells the cars to stop and visit,” so it shows a cartoon with a lopsided smile. After one day, Ivan knows a Ruby the sign leaves out. Deciding whether the real Ruby would bring people in shows what the student thinks the sign has to hide.
More. The real Ruby is sweeter than any cartoon. She has Stella’s eyes, she waves her trunk to say hello, and she asks funny questions. People would want to meet her.
Her eyes are like Stella’s, black and long-lashed, bottomless lakes fringed by tall grass.
“Hello,” says a small, clear voice. “I’m Ruby.” She waves her trunk.
Fewer. A true picture would show a baby behind bars who has lost her family. The billboard has to leave that out to keep the cars stopping.
I see a little trunk poking out between the bars of Stella’s domain.
“Humans killed them,” she says.
She doesn’t look like Ruby. She doesn’t even look like an elephant.
A strong answer A strong response takes a side and points to the page. One student may say more: Ruby has eyes “like Stella’s,” she waves her trunk hello, and she is far sweeter than a cartoon with a “lopsided smile.” Another may say fewer: a true picture would show “a little trunk poking out between the bars” and a baby whose family “Humans killed.” The best answers notice why the billboard gets her wrong. It is made to sell Ruby, and a sign that sells her cannot show what has been done to her. Ivan, who has known her one day, already sees more than the sign can show.
3. Ivan shuts his eyes and says he is sleepy. Ruby keeps asking things, like whether Bob can fly. What is she trying to do?Character
What it asks It asks the student to look at Ruby’s last questions in the art lesson, the ones she asks after Ivan has closed his eyes. Is she still just asking, or is she trying to get him back? Right then a memory comes to Ivan: little Ivan trying “every trick I know” to wake his father. What the student decides about Ruby changes what that memory shows Ivan.
She is trying to wake him up. Ivan has stopped answering, so Ruby throws out sillier and sillier questions, the way little Ivan tried every trick on his father. That is why the memory flashes past just then.
I close my eyes. “I’m a little sleepy, Ruby.”
I don’t answer.
I think of my father, snoring peacefully under the sun while I try every trick I know to wake him.
She is just being Ruby. She asks about everything she meets, from frames to pink clouds, and she cannot stand quiet. She does not notice that Ivan wants to rest.
Ruby asks a lot of questions.
Ruby frowns. “Quiet is boring.”
A strong answer A strong response picks a reading and backs it. One student may say Ruby is trying to wake Ivan: once he says “I’m a little sleepy, Ruby” and stops answering, she asks about a truck and then “Can Bob fly?”, and neither has anything to do with art. Another may say she is simply curious, since “Ruby asks a lot of questions” and thinks “Quiet is boring.” The best answers see what the memory does with either reading. Ivan is now the big one with his eyes shut and a little one asking at him, so he guesses that his father “wasn’t really such a sound sleeper after all.” It stays a guess; Ivan says “Perhaps.”
4. George tells Mack, “you might want to take a look at Stella’s foot.” Mack says money is tight and walks off. Did George do enough?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to judge the one human in the reading who notices Stella’s pain and speaks up. George cares for her every night, but the say over the vet is Mack’s. The student weighs what George did against what he might have done, and the answer shows how far care can reach when someone else holds the money.
Yes. George did what he could. He noticed the foot, stopped Mack to tell him, and stayed to comfort Stella. Mack holds the money, and Mack decides.
the treat he brings her every night without fail
you might want to take a look at Stella’s foot. I think it’s infected again.
George strokes Stella’s trunk.
Not quite. George only says Mack “might want to” look, and he says nothing more when Mack puts off the vet. He promises to fix the toilet, but for the foot he can only say sorry.
“I’ll take care of it.” George sighs.
Money’s tight, though. Can’t be calling the vet every time she sneezes.
“Sorry, girl,” George says, as he watches Mack walk away.
A strong answer A strong response takes a side and gives a reason. One student may say George did all he could: he brings a treat “every night without fail,” he is the one who says the foot is “infected again,” and he stays to stroke Stella’s trunk. Another may say he gave up too soon: he only says Mack “might want to” look, and he says nothing when Mack puts off the vet. The deepest answers notice that George can say “I’ll take care of it” about a plugged toilet, but not about Stella’s foot. Mack holds the money, so the one human who cares for her can comfort her but cannot get her help.
5. Stella moans as she moves her sore foot. Then she says, “I’m fine.” Who needs to hear that?Character
What it asks It asks the student to catch Stella saying one thing while her body says another, and to decide who she says it for. Ruby is awake beside her, Ivan has asked, and Stella herself may need to hear it. Whoever the student picks, the answer shows a kind of care Stella can still give from behind the bars: words that keep worry away.
For Ruby. Ruby already knows the foot hurts and has been tiptoeing around it, so Stella keeps the worry off her.
I don’t want to wake her ’cause she said her foot was hurting
“What are you two up to?” Stella asks, moaning as she tries to move her sore foot.
For Stella herself. Calling the pain her age makes it ordinary, something to put up with, not something anyone needs to fix.
“Just feeling my age,” Stella says.
A strong answer A strong response might say the answer is for Ruby. Ruby would not wake Stella “’cause she said her foot was hurting,” so she is already worried, and Stella answers in front of her with a light “Just feeling my age.” Another reading says the words are for Stella: naming her age turns an infected foot into something ordinary. A careful reader may add that this is the same foot Mack would not call the vet for.
6. After Ruby’s joke about baby elephants, Ivan and Stella both say “Good one.” Stella says it softly. Say each one aloud. How are they different?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to hear two voices answer the same joke. Ivan says “Good one, Ruby” while he watches Stella. Stella says “Good one” softly. Saying both aloud makes the student choose a voice for Stella. The choice shows what they think “Baby elephants” means to an old elephant who, the next section says, never had young of her own.
Ivan’s is cheerful and Stella’s is sad. Ivan is keeping the fun going for Ruby. Stella hears the babies she never had.
Trunks, I think, but I don’t answer because I don’t want to ruin Ruby’s fun.
“Good one,” Stella says softly.
“I never had the opportunity.”
Both are warm, and Stella’s is the warmest. She is stroking a baby elephant as she says it, so the softness is love, not sorrow.
“Good one, Ruby,” I say, watching Stella stroke Ruby’s back with her trunk.
Stella winks at me. “Me too,” she says.
A strong answer A strong response reads both lines aloud and explains the difference. Ivan’s is easy and kind: he even kept “Trunks” to himself so he would not ruin Ruby’s fun. Stella’s is quieter. One student may hear sorrow, because in the next section Stella says she “never had the opportunity” to have babies. Another may hear love, because she is stroking Ruby’s back as she says it. A careful reader may notice that the author puts the joke just before the memory about babies, so both can be in Stella’s voice at once.
1. Ruby tells two sad things. After the first, Ivan says he is sorry. After she tells about the chains, no one answers, but soon Ivan draws for her. Which helped her more?
What it asks It asks the student to set two moments side by side. When Ruby says her family is dead, Ivan says sorry “To be polite,” and everyone falls silent. When she tells of the chains, no one says anything. She asks for a joke, and the joke turns into drawings that make her laugh. The student weighs words that name a hurt against help that never mentions it. Neither one undoes the hurt, and that sets up the last question.
The drawing helped more. Ivan’s sorry was only polite, and it ended in silence. The pictures made Ruby laugh, and she says she really likes him.
To be polite, I say, “I’m sorry to hear that, Ruby.”
“Who else?” Bob asks, and we all fall silent.
“Ivan is making me pictures,” Ruby says. “And he told me a joke. I really like Ivan, Aunt Stella.”
The sorry helped more. At least someone answered what happened to her family. After the chains, Bob starts snoring and Ivan says nothing, so Ruby has to change the subject herself.
And then they chained my feet up, and that really hurt.
Ruby falls silent. Instantly Bob is snoring.
“Ivan?” Ruby asks. “Do you know any jokes? I especially like jokes about elephants.”
A strong answer A strong response takes a side and answers the other one. A student who picks the drawing might say the sorry was said “To be polite” and ended with “we all fall silent,” while the pictures made Ruby laugh and say, “I really like Ivan.” A student who picks the sorry might say that after the chains, “Instantly Bob is snoring,” and it is Ruby who asks for a joke, so no one ever answers her hurt. The best answers notice that neither one can undo it. Ivan began drawing to explain a refrigerator, and kept going because “It’s a good feeling, making Ruby laugh.” Comfort is what anyone here can give, and the reading’s last section asks whether care like that can keep a young one safe.
2. Ivan once told Stella, “You would have been good at protecting, too,” but Stella gazed at the iron bars and said, “I’m not sure at all.” Who is right?
What it asks It asks the student to judge the reading’s last exchange. Ivan believes Stella would be good at protecting; Stella looks at the iron bars and doubts it. The student weighs everything Stella does for Ruby in this reading against everything that has hurt Ruby or could, and decides whose view the reading bears out.
Ivan is right. Stella already looks after Ruby every way she can: she strokes her, sways with her, and makes light of her own pain. She also knows what young ones need.
All morning, Stella strokes Ruby, pats her, smells her.
You have to teach them how to take mud baths, of course, and emphasize the importance of fiber in their diet.
“Just feeling my age,” Stella says. “I’m fine.”
Stella is right. Protecting takes power, and she is behind iron bars with a sore foot that Mack will not call the vet about. In this reading, each time harm came to the young, no one could stop it: not for Ruby’s family, and not for Ruby’s chained feet.
gazing at the iron bars surrounding her
Can’t be calling the vet every time she sneezes.
And then they chained my feet up, and that really hurt.
A strong answer A strong response takes a side and answers the other one. A student who sides with Ivan might point to “All morning, Stella strokes Ruby” and to Stella saying “I’m fine” in front of her, and argue that protecting starts with care. A student who sides with Stella might say she names the hardest part as “keeping your babies safe from harm,” then point to the bars, the vet Mack will not call, and Ruby’s chained feet, and argue that care without power is not yet protection. The best answers may find that both are right in different ways: Ivan about who Stella is, Stella about where she is. The reading leaves the question open, and so should the teacher.