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| Image from the Tacoma Public Library. |
I really think she would have like the book I recently finished reading, The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate. It won the Newberry medal last year. It is based on the true story of Ivan, a gorilla who was kept in a Washington state shopping mall for nearly 30 years as a side-show attraction, and how using his artistic ability he eventually manages to move to a zoo "where humans make amends".
The story, told from the point of view of Ivan, was an engrossing page turner. Applegate manages to amuse you throughout the first half of book while revealing unsavory details about Ivan's plight and other animals kept in the mall. Subsequently you find out this his parents were likely killed by African poachers and he and is sister were sold in the United States. The second half of the book drags you along on an emotional roller coaster where you are rooting for all the animals and at the same time feel quite a bit of pity for the mall owner, Mack. It takes a good deal of skill to have a bad character, but allow the audience to feel some sympathy for him.
Google recently made a tribute to Dian Fossey, who would have been 82 years old a couple of weeks ago, had she not been murdered for her work trying to save mountain gorillas. I think she would have been happy to know about his case, and that there has been a decline taking infant gorilla's as exotic pets.
Incidently, I did see Gorillas in the Mist a while ago when the film first came out, and I can still remember a lot of it. It was a very powerful story. As someone who has met mountain gorillas at the Bronx and San Diego Zoos, it find it hard to see how anyone can look these creatures and the eye and not see their humanity.
