Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I'll be disappointed if this book gets serious Caldecott action.
It was a bare-bones full-timeline biography, already treated so much better in Applegate's novel [b:The One and Only Ivan|11594337|The One and Only Ivan|Katherine Applegate|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1326506063s/11594337.jpg|16536239]. The story wasn't really interesting, except as a visual follow-up to the novel (which was good, but I really disagreed with its Newbery award). I wish Applegate had focused in on a slice of the story that could have been developed more roundly, like the transition to the zoo being difficult, or what one might think of Ivan's paintings.
Karas' work is interesting to look at. His most intriguing choice was to make the humans cartoonish and flat while making the gorillas realistic and expressive. He used both space on the page and painting/drawing techniques to create shifts in tone as the narrative moved along--also somewhat of a separate, complementary narrative (not so for every spread, but for many).
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