Ever been grounded? How about sent to your room? Even if you've kind of earned it, and even if it's only for a little while, it still feels terrible to be stuck inside, unable to roam freely through the world. Ivan—the main ape in The One and Only Ivan—experiences this in spades, trapped inside the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade for twenty-seven years.

And for the record, he definitely didn't earn this fate.

Katherine Applegate's 2012 novel takes the real life story of Ivan the gorilla, adds a bit of imagination, and leaps into the great ape's head to tell the tale of one four hundred pound creature kept in captivity. The tale is so gripping that the book won the 2013 Newbery Medal and became a New York Times bestseller. Not exactly chump change for a book about a chimp… er, gorilla.

In case you're thinking gee, I'd rather not spend time in an ape's brain, worry not. Ivan is as articulate a narrator as they come, and a bit of a poet to boot. So whether you go to the zoo every weekend or prefer to curl up with Shakespeare, The One and Only Ivan probably has something in it for you.

Here's why you should care: Gorillas are people, too.

Okay, not technically—but what we're getting at is that this book takes a good hard look at the human practice of capturing wild animals, digging deep into what this means for, well, the animals. And part of what emerges is a clear sense that animals matter, you know, just like we do.

Ever been to the circus? How about the zoo? Made a trip to your local nature center? The One and Only Ivan doesn't come right out and say that animals can't ever have happy lives in captivity. What it does say, though, is that how we treat the animals we keep in captivity really matters. They might not be people, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve comfort and consideration. And after spending time with Ivan, well, we're pretty sure you'll agree.