The One and Only Ivan: Conversations Around Big Questions

We are almost finished with the book The One and Only Ivan. As we get to the end, we are collecting questions that we think are big enough, that we will still be thinking about them once the book is over.  This is a list of questions we came up with today:

Why does Ivan say, "It's not as easy as it looks."
Why do Ivan and his friends think some humans are nice and some are not?
Why does Ivan change saying he is in a domain to saying he is in a cage?
Why did Ivan decide to keep his promise to Stella when it is really hard?
Why doesn't Ivan live in a jungle?
Why does Julie come to visit Ivan?
Why did they chain Ruby's feet in the circus?
Why do humans upset Bob (but Julia doesn't)?
Why does Ruby talk so much?
What do words have to do with the book?
How long was Ivan in the jungle?
Is Mack nice or not nice?
Does Ivan want to go back to the jungle?

After we created the list, we got into groups and had conversations around one question. The question we talked about was the last one, "Does Ivan want to go back to the jungle?"  We tried to stick with one question to build our thinking. Then we had a whole class conversation about the question.  After we shared and built our thinking, we each thought about the question again. Here are some of the things we said about the question:

Does Ivan want to go back to the jungle?

I think he doesn’t care because Ivan made a promise to Stella that he would take care of Ruby and take her to a safe place.  So if Ruby’s safe, that’s all he cares about.

I don’t think he wants to go back to the jungle because it would bring back bad memories.

He is just trying to do his best and he wants to stay because he’s with his family and he wants to think of the good things.

I think he might want to go to the zoo so he could be with Ruby and Bob. In the jungle he might get hurt and he knows that.

I think Ivan wants to go to the zoo because he can have more space than just a cage.

I think Ivan doesn’t want to go because he can see Ruby and Bob and he is not used to getting his own food.

I think he wants to go to the jungle because he made a promise to Stella to keep Ruby safe and now he’s calling his domain a cage because of Stella. She made him change his mind. Now he is seeing Mack with the claw thing, training and all that stuff. Now he doesn’t like it there.

He wants to go to a jungle because he wants to be free.

He wants to go to the zoo so he knows that he is not the only gorilla left of his kind.

I think it’s half and half because he doesn’t want to go to the jungle because all of his friends are at the mall. He would want to go because he’s free in a bigger space instead of caged up.

I think he wants to go to the zoo because he wants to stay with Ruby because he promised Stella he would protect Ruby and he doesn’t want to break that promise.

He wants to go to the zoo so he can be with Ruby.

He wants to go to a zoo because he wants to keep his promise to Stella.

I think he wants to go to the jungle because since Stella died, he doesn’t think he belongs there anymore.

I think he wants to go to the jungle because he’ll take Ruby with him and they’ll make friends there and protect Ruby.

I think Ivan is going to bring Ruby to the zoo and he’ll stay there with her and they’ll be treated the way they want to be.

I think he wants to go to the jungle but in some ways he doesn’t because if he goes, he will miss all of his friends.

I think Ivan wants to stay at the mall because if he goes to the jungle or the zoo, he won’t get to see his friends anymore.

He wants to stay in the cage because he’ll miss Ruby.

I think Ivan wants to go to a zoo to keep Ruby safe like he promised.