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The One and Only Ivan
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Ivan promised Stella that Ruby would have a safe place, and now he says, “I can’t save Ruby.” Was Ivan right to make that promise?
The tension In the moonlight Ivan stands to his full height and promises “on my word as a silverback”; the next night, flat on the cold cement, he tells Bob, “I shouldn’t have made that promise, Bob.”
What each creature in the reading can and cannot do for another as Stella dies: Mack and the vet, Julia and George, Ivan and Ruby, Bob and Ivan.
The reading opens on a busy parking lot and Ruby's story of a village that pulled her from a hole, which starts a quarrel about humans. Stella grows too sick to perform, Ruby goes into the ring alone, and Julia gets George to call Mack, who says the vet will come in the morning if Stella is no better. In the moonlight Stella asks for a promise, and Ivan swears to find Ruby a safe place. Then come very short sections: Ivan knows Stella is gone, her body is taken away, he can find only one true thing to comfort Ruby, and George goes to Mack with a few words about the vet. It ends with Ivan telling Bob he cannot save Ruby, and Bob making him say his own name under a clouded moon.
Start with Ruby's rescue story and Bob's question, “If humans are so swell, who did that to her?” Let the student answer before reading Ruby's reply aloud. Then follow the day as Stella grows weaker, and stop at the moonlit promise: ask what Ivan knows when he first says “I promise,” and what he knows the second time.
Retell The student tells the reading back in order: the parking lot, Ruby's story, the three shows, Julia's worry and the call to Mack, the promise, and the short sections after Stella dies, ending with Bob and the clouded moon. Ask for the short sections to be told in the student's own short sentences.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes two or three sentences of their own about something that lasts a long time. Ask for one long sentence that repeats a key word to join its parts, as Stella's does (“promises are forever, and forever is”), then a short follow-up that is not a full sentence. Last, one sentence that opens with a “When” clause and a comma, like the reading's last line.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists from the reading: Ivan's reasons for the promise (Stella is dying, Ruby needs a safe place, he wanted Stella happy) and what now frightens him (Ruby shivering, Bob's words to her, “I can’t even save myself”). Each side gives one reason and answers one reason from the other list.
Purpose Close by asking why the reading ends with Bob making Ivan say his name, and with the moon Stella loved hidden by clouds, and not with a plan. Leave open what Ivan will do; the reading does.
Easier Read the promise scene aloud together, from “Ivan?” to “on my word as a silverback”, and retell it: what Stella asks, what Ivan answers, and the voice he says it in. Talk through the third and fourth discussion questions, then answer 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 in complete sentences, each with a reason and a line from the reading.
Harder Ask the student to write the last written question as an argument: a claim, the strongest reason against it, and an answer to that reason. Then have them set Mack's word that he will not let Stella “die on him” beside Ivan's promise, and say how the two are different.
1. Ruby says bad humans sent her here, and good humans saved her from the hole. Bob says that makes no sense. Does it make sense to you?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to hold Ruby's two truths about humans side by side and decide whether they fit. Bad humans killed her family and sent her to the mall; a whole village of humans pulled her out of the hole with ropes. Bob cannot make the two fit, and even Ivan says he does not understand humans. It bears on the promise to come: whether Ruby can hope for a safe place depends partly on what humans are like.
It makes sense. Humans are not all one kind. The ones who killed Ruby's family and the village that pulled her out were different people, and Stella, who has heard rescue stories before, is not surprised.
Bad humans killed my family, and bad humans sent me here. But that day in the hole, it was humans who saved me.
Humans can surprise you sometimes.
It does not make sense, or not yet. If humans can be that good, a baby elephant should not end up behind bars at a mall, and Stella before her. Even Ivan, who believes Ruby's story at once, tells Bob he does not understand them either.
Just like they did with Stella.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Bob says.
“You’re not alone,” I say, and I turn my gaze back to the racing gray clouds.
A strong answer A strong response might say it makes sense because Ruby is talking about different humans. The ones who killed her family are not the village that pulled her out, where “The whole entire village helped”. A student who sides with Bob might ask how humans can be called good when Ruby ended up behind bars, “Just like they did with Stella”, and point out that even Ivan answers, “You’re not alone”. The best answers let Ruby's own sentence hold both kinds of humans and do not decide that humans are all good or all bad.
2. All day, Ruby has stayed close to Stella. Then Stella whispers in her ear, and Ruby goes into the ring alone. What do you think Stella told her?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to fill a gap the reading leaves open. All day Ruby has refused to leave Stella's side; after the whisper, she goes. The student guesses the words from what comes before and after them, and from what a sick aunt can still do for a little one when she cannot go with her. The whisper comes only hours before Stella asks Ivan to take care of Ruby.
Stella told her to be brave and go, that she would be all right on her own. Ruby begs with her eyes but goes, and in the ring she makes her own tiny trumpet sound.
Ruby looks at her pleadingly, but after a moment, she follows Mack to the ring.
She makes her tiny trumpet sound.
Stella told her she had to go. Mack pulled Stella into the ring even while she was limping, so saying no does not look like a choice here. Going quietly may be the safest thing Stella can tell her.
Instead, Mack pulls her, limping, into the ring, where she tracks a circle in the sawdust.
When Mack comes for Ruby, Stella whispers something in her ear.
A strong answer A strong response might give the words and then show the page behind them. One student might hear Stella telling Ruby to be brave, since Ruby goes “after a moment” and wins the crowd on her own. Another might hear something harder, that Ruby has no choice, since Mack pulled Stella, “limping,” into the ring. A thoughtful answer may add why Ivan cannot tell whether to be happy or sad: Ruby is a hit, and she is a hit in Stella's place.
3. Stella never says her wish. She finally says, “Never mind,” and blames the pain. But Ivan guesses it anyway. Why doesn’t he just let it go?Character
What it asks It asks the student why Ivan picks up a wish Stella has dropped. Ivan has already promised twice before hearing it; then Stella says “Never mind” and blames the pain. He could leave it there. Instead he names the wish himself, and the words surprise him. The student looks for what pushes him: his love for Stella, what he sees in Ruby, or the silverback he wants to be. This is the step that turns Ivan's “Anything” into a promise about Ruby.
He loves Stella and has already given his word. He said “Anything” before he knew the cost, and he will not leave her alone with her worry while her chest shudders with pain.
“Anything,” I say.
“I promise anyway.”
Her great chest shudders.
He does not quite decide. He sees Ruby's trunk reaching in her sleep, and the words come out before he has thought them through. They surprise even him.
Her trunk moves, as if she is reaching for something that isn’t there.
When I say the words, they surprise me.
A strong answer A strong response might say Ivan cannot let it go because he loves Stella and has already said “Anything,” so dropping the wish would leave her alone with her worry. Another might point to Ruby's trunk, reaching “for something that isn’t there”, and to Ivan's surprise at his own words: he does not so much decide as see what Stella needs. A careful reader may notice that Stella gave him a way out, blaming the pain, and that he did not take it.
4. Ivan would give “all the yogurt raisins in all the world for a heart made of ice.” Would he be better off with one?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to take Ivan's wish seriously. Stella once teased that gorilla hearts are ice and elephant hearts are fire; now Ivan wishes she had been right about him. The student weighs what a heart of ice would spare him against what it would cost him.
Yes, for now. A heart of ice would not hurt like this, and Ivan hurts so much that even the cement he lies on hurts tonight.
Right now I would give all the yogurt raisins in all the world for a heart made of ice.
The cement is always cold, but tonight it hurts.
No. The heart that hurts is the same heart that loved Stella and made her a promise. Stella said elephants feel more joy and more grief, as if the two come together; a heart that could not grieve might not have loved her either.
Stella once teased me that elephants are superior because they feel more joy and more grief than apes.
“Your gorilla hearts are made of ice, Ivan,” she said, her eyes glittering.
A strong answer A strong response might grant the wish its reason: Ivan hurts so much that even the cold cement hurts tonight, and ice would not feel that. It might then ask what else ice would take. Stella said elephants feel “more joy and more grief”, as if the two come together, so a heart that could not grieve for her might not have loved her either. The words “Right now” matter, too: Ivan wishes for ice in this moment, which is not the same as wishing he had never cared.
5. Ivan hears that Stella’s body was tossed into a garbage truck. Then he says, “It took five men and a forklift.” He never tells us how he feels. Which word in those lines shows it best?Author's choice
What it asks It asks the student to slow down on one of the shortest parts of the book, where Ivan names no feeling at all, and find the word that carries one. The word “tossed” is for something light, and a garbage truck is where trash goes; “five men and a forklift” says how heavy and great she was. The student picks a word and says what feeling it holds, which is more than saying Ivan is sad. Without a word of comment, the two lines also show how this place treats an elephant, the place Stella did not want for Ruby.
The word is “tossed”. People toss something light that they are throwing away, and the humans did it to Stella, into a garbage truck, as if she were trash. The word holds Ivan's anger at how they treated her.
Bob heard from a rat, a reliable sort, that they tossed Stella’s body into a garbage truck.
The word is “forklift”. Even now it took five men and a machine to move her. Ivan is still thinking of how big and great Stella was, and so of how much is gone.
It took five men and a forklift.
Her great chest shudders.
A strong answer A strong response picks a word and says what it holds. One student might choose “tossed”, a word for throwing away something light, and hear Ivan's anger that Stella went into “a garbage truck” like trash. Another might choose “forklift”: it took five men and a machine to move her, so even now Ivan is measuring how great she was. A careful reader may notice that Ivan never names a feeling in this part, and argue that the bare facts make the reader feel it for him.
6. After Stella dies, George runs to Mack about the vet. Later his cheeks are wet, and he doesn’t meet Ivan’s eyes. Who is George most upset with?Character
What it asks It asks the student to read a man through a few broken words and what he does with his face. George's words are aimed at Mack, but the night before, George was the one who said a vet costs money and told Julia that Stella would be all right.
Mack. George runs straight to him with words about the vet, and Mack is the one who chose to wait until morning.
When George sees Mack, he runs to him.
“Mack says the vet’s coming in the morning if Stella’s not any better,” he tells Julia.
Himself. George held back from calling at first, and he told Julia not to worry. Now he cannot look Ivan in the eye.
But a vet costs money, Jules.
“She’ll be all right. She’s a tough old girl.”
He doesn’t meet my eyes.
A strong answer A strong response might start with Mack, since George runs to him and Mack is the one who said the vet would come only in the morning. It might then notice that George had his own part: he said “a vet costs money, Jules”, and told her, “She’ll be all right.” His wet cheeks and the eyes he keeps from Ivan can point either way, or both. A careful answer keeps to George's view and does not claim that a vet would have saved Stella; the reading never says.
1. To comfort Ruby, Ivan thinks of three things he could say. He can only be sure that the last one is true. Should he say the other two anyway?
What it asks It asks the student to weigh kindness against truth. Ivan thinks of three comforts for Ruby and can be sure only that the last one is true. The student decides whether two kind things that may not be true would help a grieving little elephant or wrong her, and backs the answer with the reading. It prepares the last question, about a promise made to make someone happy.
Yes. Ruby is small and shivering, and she has lost the aunt who looked after her. Kind words would help her through the night, and Ivan's one true thing may not be enough on its own.
All day I try to comfort Ruby, but what can I say?
“She was shivering,” Bob says.
No. Ruby lived beside Stella and saw her life: the sore foot, the dirty hay, the cage. Stella herself wanted Ruby's life to be different from hers, so telling Ruby that Stella lived as she was meant to would not ring true, even to Ruby.
If she could have a life that’s … different from mine.
That she lived as she was meant to live?
At least the last is true.
A strong answer A strong response takes a side and gives a reason from the reading. A student who says yes might argue that a shivering little elephant needs comfort tonight more than the exact truth, and that kind words could help her through the night. A student who says no might point to what Ruby saw for herself, Stella limping into the ring and lying in dirty hay, and to Stella's wish that Ruby have a life “different from mine”: Ruby would know the first two were not true. A careful answer may notice that the one true thing Ivan keeps, that Stella died with those who loved her most nearby, is a comfort too, and that Ruby is one of them.
2. Ivan promised Stella that Ruby would have a safe place, and now he says, “I can’t save Ruby.” Was Ivan right to make that promise?
What it asks It asks the student to judge the vow itself, now that Stella is gone and Ivan says he cannot keep it. Ivan gave it before he heard the request, named the wish himself, swore it as a silverback, and now says he only wanted to make Stella happy. The student weighs what the promise gave against what it now asks of him.
Yes. Stella was dying and afraid for Ruby, and the promise was the one thing Ivan could give her. Ruby needs someone sworn to find her a safe place, and now someone is.
She needs a safe place, Ivan.
“I promise it on my word as a silverback.”
I wanted to make Stella happy, I guess.
No. Ivan promised what he cannot see how to do. Now Ruby is shivering, and Bob has told her Ivan will save her, so the promise has become a hope she is holding.
I shouldn’t have made that promise, Bob.
But I can’t save Ruby. I can’t even save myself.
And I told her not to worry, because you were going to save her.
A strong answer A strong response takes a side, gives a reason and answers the other side. A student who says yes might argue that the promise gave Stella what she asked for at the end, and that Ruby now has someone sworn to her “on my word as a silverback.” A student who says no might point to “I can’t even save myself” and to Ruby, shivering, told she will be saved. A careful answer may notice that Stella herself warned that forever is long, “Especially when you’re in a cage”, and that Ivan thought it would be easier “to stop breathing” and promised anyway: he did not promise blindly. The reading does not say whether he keeps the promise, so the best answers judge the promise, not how the story turns out.