The book I am going to share with you is ‘The One and Only Ivan’. It is about a gorilla called Ivan. It lives in the zoo but has no gorilla friends. A lot of unhappy things happen but Ivan demonstrates his wisdom when he overcomes the difficulties.
Guess what? The one and only gorilla, Ivan visited my school last Monday! I was excited and I really had a good time with him.
When we were having our morning assembly in the afternoon, a man with fierce eyes and unkempt hair entered our classroom suddenly. Oh! He was not a man, but a gorilla! All people were shrieking!
‘Calm down, kids! That is the reason why I keep telling you to read more books. He is Ivan, the character from the book called “The one and only Ivan”. He will visit our school today and he will have lessons with you,’ our class teacher, Mr. Chan explained.
‘Good morning, I’m Ivan. Nice to meet you all!’ Ivan said. We all gave him a round of applause.
The classmate who sat next to me was absent. Therefore, Mr. Chan told Ivan to sit next to me. That was a bit frightening as it was the first time for me to sit next to a gorilla!
‘Hello, my name is Kelvin. Nice to meet you!’ I tried to introduce myself to Ivan.
When I looked at Ivan, I found that he was very fierce and I was not comfortable sitting with him.
‘Ivan, you always look very fierce. Are you angry with someone?’
‘Ha! Really? I’ve never got angry. Frankly speaking, human beings are superficial. They like to use their point of view to see everything, and they also just look at the surface of the things. A lot of people said I’m ugly and fierce, but we’re God’s work so all creatures should be great.’
Wow! Ivan was really a philosopher. What he said were very meaningful! At the same time, I was ashamed.
As I was a fan of Ivan, I used all my recess time to chat with him! I even chatted with him at the lesson time! He was very understanding and I told him a lot of things about myself!
The last two lessons were art lessons. Ivan and I had to finish an art work together and the topic was a ‘sketch portrait’.
After I drew the outline, I asked Ivan, ‘Is it good enough?’
Ivan replied calmly, ‘Nothing is good and nothing is bad. You’re drawing, drawing for yourself. If you know how to appreciate, every art work is your masterpiece!’
I was dumbfounded. Ivan was extremely knowledgeable. His words could really build up my confidence! Moreover, I could learn a lot of things from him!
Thank you, Ivan! I really had a good time with you and you have also taught me a lot of things!