Katherine Applegate, you dominate. At writing. At capturing my heart. The One and Only Bob follows The One and Only Ivan and lemme tell ya, it’s a gem! This is the one book you need to Prime this week. The only one. You’ll find yourself starting it with the intention of conquering a few chapters and in a blink, you will be half-way through.
This is a novel about courage and forgiveness. We can all benefit from reading about that. Courage to trust. Courage to step up. Courage to expose yourself. Forgiveness of others. Forgiveness of yourself. Courage to let things in the past stay there. DEEP, peeps. Deep.
I offered to host Tiny Dancer’s Girl Scout troop’s socially-distanced meeting in our backyard with the focus being a book discussion. Tiny Dancer and I finished The One and Only Ivan and I knew this follow-up book had to be part of our mom/daughter TBR read-aloud list. Because I was hosting the meeting and I wanted to make sure the book choice was appropriate and readable for all levels, this was a clear winner.
I think I was more excited than my daughter. No shame here. 😉
We started the book as a read-aloud but the audiobook became available through Libby and we started that up mid-book. Danny DiVito narrated the book, and holy crud, he is PERFECT! Request the audiobook for his voice and narration skills alone. The beautiful story is the whipped cream on top. Promise.
Bob has endured a lot in his limited time on Earth. He lived on the streets. He’s a jaded little dude. Rightly so. There’s not a flicker of hope in his soul to see his siblings.
Hark the herald angels sing because Bob finds himself a family. Kaboom! He’s skittish to get too close. His humans could abandon him, after all. That’s what humans do, right? Living hard gave him some street cred and he’s a bit proud of that and doesn’t like to cop to being called ‘domesticated.’
Bob’s bestie Ivan (gorilla) and Ruby (elephant) live at an animal sanctuary. Our favorite pup is loyal to these two. Loy-al! He has a good relationship with his other animal cronies at the sanctuary.
So yes, Bob has a good family home, meals, love from his humans, best friends. He should be grateful. Content. But he often wonders about his sister, Boss. He could have helped her in a traumatic accident when they were pups. But he didn’t. And Bob hasn’t forgiven himself or who caused the accident originally.
A hurricane hits the town where Bob lives and chaos ensues. Will Bob find it in himself to protect those he loves? Or will he resort to his ‘look out for numero uno’ motto to save himself?
The themes in this book include family, sense of self, courage and forgiveness. C’mon. If that doesn’t just make you hit ‘purchase,’ what would?!
The best part about reading these non-adult books is we get to search hidden treasures and messages that maybe our smaller ones might not catch. There is so much here that the troop didn’t pick up on but I was legit DYING to talk about.
This felt so current. Can someone who hasn’t had the opportunity for hope and unconditional love and security find that in time? With the right people? Are you really saving yourself heartache by putting walls up? Does it help or hinder to hang on to perceived missteps from years ago? SUCH good material to bite into here.
I so loved this book. Please tell me you have the inside scoop that this author is penning The One and Only Ruby next. Message me.
If you are looking for a guided reading resource for this book, take a look at the author’s website!
What other middle grade books have you loved this year?!