Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

June 2023

• ISBN: 9780008470746
• ISBN 10: 000847074X
• Imprint: HarperCollins GB
• RRP: $16.99

We first fell in love with Ivan and his friends over ten years ago (yes! I know!!), and I still defy anyone to read the gentle gorilla’s story with dry eyes. Then, the amazing Katherine Applegate followed up with The One and Only Bob, and again we were both amused and moved by the narrative of one small dog’s battle to find his place in the world. It was inevitable that Ruby’s story demanded to be told as well.

So many of us were so invested with little Ruby and her adopted elder Stella, and now we have this funny little animal’s backstory, which is both tender, and anger-making and, ultimately, heart-warming.

Ruby is safe and loved in the park she shares with Uncle Ivan, his mate Aunt Kinyani, Bob (on a regular basis as he visits daily with his human) and her adopted herd of aunts. Her Tusk-day is imminent – the day that elephant calves are acknowledged to be growing up – and Ruby is supremely anxious, indeed resistant, about it and is adamant she will not have it. Like most youngsters she finds that ignoring the issue, and trying to run away doesn’t help but with the wisdom we have come to expect from her two ‘uncles’, Ivan and Bob gently encourage the little elephant to share her feelings.

Ruby’s sad story of being orphaned and subsequently poached unfolds. The terrible trade in ivory and poaching that still occurs in Africa is revealed in all its ugliness. By providing readers with facts and information about this heinous and highly illegal activity, but doing so through Ruby’s recollections, Katherine Applegate provides a way for children to absorb the crucial details without undue trauma.

My own experience tells me that children respond with all due empathy to such sharing and become, appropriately, righteously inspired to make a change for the good. They will fully engage with Ruby’s story, just as much as they have with the two previous books, and I foresee that there will be a push from each one to find out how they can help put an end to this bloody and cruel profiteering. As a read-aloud, or for independent reading, it is a great narrative, but goes beyond that, with its ultimate goal of helping to save the elephants (and other species hunted for profit).

Ultimately, Ruby begins to see that being safe, though in captivity, is the price to pay for all of the park inhabitants, and her Tusk-Day takes on new meaning, with the beautiful ceremony created by her aunts showing both the little elephant and the readers, the special-ness of a loving circle, and that made families are as important as natural families.

The author’s notes include some other references to explore, regarding elephant behaviour, the sad plight of elephants being held in terrible conditions as sideshows or circus acts and organisations striving to make a difference to these amazing animals.

There is also the first few pages of Ivan’s own story, should readers not yet have read it. Many readers will have seen The One and Only Ivan in its movie format, which first streamed on Disney+ (it will soon be available on DVD as well), and there is movie tie-in edition of the book available also.

I highly recommend this, and the entire series, to your readers from around Year 4 upwards and would urge readers to seek out the several sources on the real Ivan’s story for further reading.