First Came the FictionInspired by the Facts

Author Katherine Applegate was inspired to write her award-winning middle grade novel The One and Only Ivan by a newspaper article. More than 20 years ago, she read an article in The New York Times about a gorilla that had been kept caged as an attraction in a shopping mall for twenty-seven years. She kept the article and used it as inspiration for her fictional account of the gorilla Ivan's life years later.

The One and Only Ivan was published in 2012.

In 2014, Katherine Applegate's picture book biography of Ivan was published. While Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla is written for a younger audience, ages 4 to 8, it will also be of interest to kids 8 to 12 years old who read and loved The One and Only Ivan and want to know more about the real Ivan.

Follow the links below to overviews of the two books:

• The One and Only Ivan
• Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla