I finished off this book in one sitting... I should have gone to bed, but books like this with their deliciously short chapters always get me. They're so small and it only takes a minute at most to read any one chapter that I stayed up and finished the book.
There were a few other reviewers out there who thought the book was too 'cute'. That it wasn't what kids would read, it's what adults thought kids would read. I disagree, there were far too many instances of abuse and suffering for me to describe the book as cute. Never-the-less I think that it is a story kids would read. The premise is interesting, hearing Ivan's point of view in short, simple descriptions. Humans, Ivan says, have too many words. And the writing accurately captures the mindset of someone who never uses a $20 word when the dollar word will work just fine. The book is almost how you would imagine a gorilla keeping a diary, not every single is recorded, just the stuff that matters.
The story is the driving force of the book, certainly not setting (four different ones and two of them are strictly flashbacks) and not really the characters (though they are enjoyable).
Perhaps the most compelling part of the story is that there is a grain of truth in it. Ivan is based off of an actual gorilla that spent two decades in a store display. While reading you can't help but think how implausible the entire thing is, animal rights being what they are today. But, in the not-so-distant past, exotic animals were held captive for display by organizations other than zoos, and this book highlights the experiences the many animals went through because the resources to care for them were inadequate.
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