When ambassadors from the Sedgwick County Zoo visited Great Bend’s elementary schools on Thursday, students got to do two things they really seem to love: learn about animals and raise their hands whenever an adult asks a question.
“How many of you have been to the Sedgwick County Zoo?” zookeeper Jan Brock asked.
Almost every hand shot up.
“How many of you know a gorilla?” she asked. The hands went up again.
The question didn’t seem to matter. Brock’s colleague, Ashley Locke, got similar responses with these two questions:
“How many of you think elephants have hair?”
“How many of you think elephants don’t have hair?”
For the record, an elephant’s skin is full of hairs. And if Great Bend youngsters didn’t have a gorilla friend earlier, they soon will. On Friday, every child in grade K-6 will receive his or her very own copy of “The One and Only Ivan.” It’s about a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lives in a cage at a mall.
The Wichita zookeepers visited Great Bend on Thursday as an introduction to “Ivan” and the 2016 One District One Book community literacy program.
When children come home from school today with their copies of “Ivan,” members of the ODOB committee ask that someone at home reads it with them.
In fact, the ODOB committee wants the entire community to get excited about reading this month. Parents and students were sent calendars with information about the book and related events, such as Library Nights and trips to Long’s Pumpkin Patch.
Children have been encouraged to look for Ivan in today’s Homecoming Parade.
The students should finish reading the 300-page book by the end of October, while earning some chances at prize drawings and helping raise funds for a family of gorillas at the Sedgwick County Zoo.
The real Ivan
“The gorilla in our book is a real animal,” Brock said. “Ivan lived in Washington state.”
The real Ivan lived in a glass cage in a Tacoma, Wash., shopping mall for more than 20 years, but he eventually got to feel real grass under his feet again at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia, where he lived out his life.
Author Katherine Applegate’s Ivan has a similar life, but he also has some fictional friends, including a wise older elephant named Stella and a baby elephant named Ruby.
As children read the book, Brock told them, there are some things they will be able to think about.
“Ivan is, or was, a real animal, and when the author wrote this book she gave Ivan a voice,” she said. “His animal friends are the author’s imagination.”
Brock told the readers they will enjoy Ivan’s positive attitude, his creativity and his loyalty.
The novel is written in first person from the point of view of Ivan. In 2013 it was named the winner of the Newbery Medal, which recognizes the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. It is illustrated by Patricia Castelao.
