Hello, this is Michelle Reid for the HPPR Radio Readers Summer Book Club. Today I’m here with my granddaughter Claire to talk about one of her favorite books. Claire, tell us a little bit about you first.
CLAIRE: I’m nine years old and I live in Olathe, Kansas.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE: Tell us about your book. What is the title of your book?
CLAIRE: The One and Only Family
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE: Who wrote your book?
CLAIRE: Katherine Applegate.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE: She’s written a lot of books, hasn’t she? She writes books for kids like picture books and just all kinds of things.
CLAIRE: Yeah.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE: How long is your book?
CLAIRE: 262 pages!
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE: Is it a long book for you?
CLAIRE: About the middle.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE: What kind of a book is it?
CLAIRE: Fiction/fantasy
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : Tell us who is the main character and what can you tell us about Ivan?
CLAIRE: Ivan is the silverback of his troop.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : Wait? Ivan is a gorilla?
CLAIRE: Yes!
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : Awesome!
CLAIRE: He has twins.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : Who else is in the troop?
CLAIRE: Kinyani, his mate.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : So, she’s the twins’ mom. What is the setting of your book?
CLAIRE: A zoo in the present.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : What happens to Ivan?
CLAIRE: He gets twins and they name them Tooma and Raji. Sometimes he is a bit overprotective. He forbids Raji to climb a rock formation and he worries a lot whenever the twins do something called a pop drop. They climb to the tallest branch of a tree and then Ivan catches them. Ivan always gets worried about what if he didn’t catch them even after he does catch them.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : What is something that Ivan learns?
CLAIRE: That sometimes they are going to be independent and they are going to have to learn for themselves sometimes. He learns that he’s being over-protective and needs to let them be on their own sometimes.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : Is it hard for him to learn that? Do human parents have that problem sometimes?
CLAIRE: Yeah.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : What else do people need to know about this book?
CLAIRE: It is in a series. It’s a sequel to the Newberry Medal winner The One and Only Ivan.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : How many books? Can you tell us what they are?
CLAIRE: Yeah. Four. The One and Only Ivan; The One and Only Bob; The One and Only Ruby; and The One and Only Family.
GRANDMOTHER MICHELLE : Who else might like this book? I know you were super excited when you saw it in the store. Would teenagers like the book?
CLAIRE: Yes.
This is Michelle Reid and Claire for the HPPR Radio Reader Book Club’s Summer Read. Happy Reading.
For more than a decade, readers have been enchanted by the modern classic The One and Only Ivan, a Newbery Award winner and a #1 New York Times bestseller, and by its bestselling sequels, The One and Only Bob and The One and Only Ruby.
Michelle Reid has been the school librarian at Dodge City High School in Dodge City, KS., for the last 10 years. Before that, she taught English classes at DCHS. She has lived in Dodge City for 25 years. She explores the world (and other worlds too!) through books and travel. She loves young adult books and hopes to encourage HPPR listeners to read the best of them. Her nine-year-old granddaughters from Kansas City and Olathe joined her this summer for the Radio Readers Book Club’s Summer Read.
