Reading 9 · days to H · The One and Only Ivan

Copywork

If I could use human words to say what I need to say, this would all be so easy. Instead, I have my pots of paint and my ragged pages. I sigh. My fingertips glow like jungle flowers.

It’s not a perfect place. Even in just a few fleeting seconds on my TV screen, I can see that. A perfect place would not need walls. But it’s the place I need.

Ivan sighs. Then his fingertips “glow like jungle flowers.” Is that a sad line or a hopeful one?

For the educator Two passages, both from Ivan’s nights. The first is four sentences from the section titled “not right”. Its first sentence opens with an “If” clause and a comma and wishes for what Ivan does not have; the second opens with “Instead,” and a comma and names what he does have. Then come a two-word sentence and a simile. The second passage is four sentences from the section titled “ad”. Its second sentence opens with a long phrase of time and place set off by a comma; the last two are short, and the last begins with “But”. The second passage uses both “It’s” and “it’s”, each with an apostrophe. The vocabulary words “ragged” and “fleeting” come from these passages. The talk prompt asks about the last sentence of the first passage; the fourth discussion question returns to the second passage.

Discussion

Narration Tell this reading back in order, from Mack’s claw-stick in the ring to Bob closing his eyes.

Ivan paints Ruby’s picture night after night before he ever sees the zoo ad. Does he know yet what he is painting? Inference
Ruby asks Ivan if she has to do the shows today. When he says yes, she says, “I already knew the answer.” So why did she ask? Character
Mack walks away with the grass painting. Ivan calls it “my painting. Ruby’s painting.” Why does he say it both ways? Character
Ivan says, “A perfect place would not need walls.” The zoo in the ad has a wall. Does Ruby need that wall? Theme
Bob hears the word home and closes his eyes. He calls it “not so important” in a quiet voice. Is he talking about Ivan’s picture, or about himself? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone kept picturing a place they wanted to be. What did picturing it do for them?

Vocabulary

exist: Things that don’t exist. To be real and truly there, not only pictured in someone’s head.
beckons: Across the parking lot the billboard beckons, as it always does Seems to wave or call people closer, the way the sign calls to drivers.
ragged: Instead, I have my pots of paint and my ragged pages. Torn and worn, with rough edges.
expanse: I stare at the huge expanse of colors and shapes. A wide stretch that spreads out far, like pieces covering a whole floor.
fleeting: Even in just a few fleeting seconds on my TV screen, I can see that. Lasting only a moment and then gone.
unnatural: He says it’s unnatural. Not the usual way for a creature to live, as Bob sees painting all night.
annoyance: Ruby pokes with annoyance at her roped foot. A feeling of being bothered and a little angry.
endless: I watch Ruby plod around the ring in endless circles, going nowhere. Seeming never to stop or finish.
earshot: Bob says when Mack’s out of earshot. The distance within which someone can hear you.

Critical thinking

At the last show, Mack reaches for the claw-stick, and Ruby “doesn’t even flinch.” She has stopped fighting Mack. Has Ivan started?
Ivan once wished he could “use human words” to say what he meant. Now he paints a letter, and Bob guesses it is a ladder. Is Ivan using human words at last?
Every night Ivan paints Ruby in a place she has never been, and he cannot explain his idea even to Bob. Is his giant painting a plan or a wish?