“One” is a wonderful story about friendship written and illustrated by Kathryn Otoshi. It’s a book about colours standing up for each other against Red.

Blue is a quiet colour, who liked looking up at the sky, floating on waves, and splashing in puddles. Sometimes though, he wanted to be other colours. Yellow was always sunny. Or regal like Purple would be nice. But overall being Blue was cool, unless he was with Red. Red was a hot head, and liked picking on Blue. That made Blue feel… blue. The rest of the colours would sometimes try to comfort him, but they never stood up to Red. Everytime Red said something mean, he got bigger, and eventually every colour was afraid of him.

One day, One came. He had a different shape, with bold strokes and squared corners. One had a good sense of humor and made the colours laugh. Red saw this and got very mad. “Stop laughing!”, he said.

Then he rolled up to One. “Stop laughing!”

But One stood up straight like an arrow, and simply replied, “No.”

Red was mad, but One wouldn’t budge, so he rolled away. The colour all became numbers, while Red went to Blue and said what he always did.

“Red is HOT. Blue is NOT.”

“Red can be really hot, but Blue can be super cool,” stated Blue

Red blew a fuse, and tried to roll over Blue. So everyone took a stand, which made Red feel small. Red grew redder and redder, until he rolled away.

But Blue called out, “Can Red be hot… And Blue be cool?”

Red stopped in his tracks.

“Red can count too,” said One.

Red rocked and rolled, and turned into seven!

Sometimes it just takes One.

The theme of this story is friendship. I say that because the other colours/numbers stood up for Blue, strengthening their friendship. After that, they invited Red to be their friend and turn into a number. This book teaches its readers that they shouldn’t be afraid of standing up to bullies, no matter if it’s for themselves or others.

I thought the illustrations were very simple, but if there weren’t any words, I would still understand what the story is about.

All in all, this is an amazing book with a strong message; friendship.

 

“Ivan: The Remarkable True Story Of The Shopping Mall Gorilla” is a touching story written by Katherine Applegate and illustrated wonderfully by G. Brian Karas. The book is about a gorilla who lived with humans for most of his life.

A gorilla was born in tropical forest in central Africa. His family included many western lowland gorillas including babies, kids, females, and a silverback male leader. There, he felt at home. They wrestled and played, swung from vine to vine. He didn’t even know about humans. Until it was too late. Poachers with weapons and cruel hands captured him and another baby, and kept them in a dark, damp crate. The gorillas had traveled halfway around the world, to Tacoma, Washington, and sold to a man who owned a shopping mall. People treated them like other humans; dressed them in human clothes, and ate human food. And the shopping mall ran a “Name the Babies” contest, resulting in Burma and Ivan. But one day, Burma died, leaving Ivan all alone. Ivan continued to live in a house like a human child for three more years. He learned many other things, like watching TV, riding motorcycles, but he didn’t need to learn how to eat. The more he ate, the more he grew. The more he grew, the less he could live in a human house like a human. A cage in the mall became his new home, and grew into a silverback gorilla when he was thirteen.

Year after year, people got mad at Ivan’s lonely life. Ivan had lived in the cage for twenty-seven years before going on another journey. But this time the hands were gentle. He had arrived at a mini-jungle, just like he had before. Other gorilla’s also lived there. Ivan loved it there. Just like his old home.

This book’s theme was very moving and sad, but also had a happy ending. The message the story gave was to tell people that your home is where you belong. It isn’t right to take people from somewhere they love to stay ing. What the humans did to Ivan was wrong; he had lived in a cage for a big part of his life. Therefore, I believe everyone should read this book. There are still people who capture animals illegally.

I thought this story was very touching. It told to remarkable true story about a gorilla. Imagine being locked in a cage for 14 years. Wouldn’t that be torture?

Overall, this book was very emotional, and gives a strong message; not to interfere with a living being’s life.