The One and Only Bob

Bob's story unexpectedly resonated for me in this year of trauma, 2020. Bob is dogged (pun intended, yes) by the trauma of abandonment, scraping by as a stray dog, and of not saving Boss, his sister. It's hard for him to reconcile all that with the cush life he now leads living with Julia and her parents; given all that he's been through, does he really deserve it? When Hurricane Gus threatens destruction on all that Bob cares about including his best friends Ivan and Ruby, Bob digs down deep to overcome his mental barriers and find redemption. Not quite as fully formed as "The One and Only Ivan," but again it speaks so well to the current suffering we are in.

First sentence: Look, nobody's ever accused me of being a good dog. I bark at empty air. I eat cat litter. I roll in garbage to enhance my aroma. I harass innocent squirrels. I hog the couch. I lick myself in the presence of company. I'm no saint, okay?

The One and Only Bob is a sequel to Katherine Applegate's One and Only Ivan. Is it a sequel or more of a companion novel? Definitely a sequel. The novel opens with Bob living with his new family (George, Sara, Julia), and Ivan (the gorilla) and Ruby (the elephant) in their new homes at the local zoo. There are flashbacks--of sorts--to their time living together at the mall (as well as other flashbacks).

The One and Only Bob has enough action for ten books. (I jest, mostly). You could show more argue that The One and Only Ivan was a character-driven, contemplative/reflective story with tons of heart. The One and Only Bob doesn't lack any in the character department. It doesn't. (There are new characters introduced too). And it certainly has HEART. (It is all the feels all at once.) But the action is INTENSE. Now take what you're imagining and magnify by about five. For 98% of this one expect to have your stomach in knots and an ache in your heart.

So a storm is coming...and it's a BIG storm. It will catch all the characters--especially the animals, but also the humans--a bit unprepared.

I really LOVED this one. It is a love in a different way. It complements One and Only Ivan. It does. But the intensity of the action is something that I could NEVER have handled in a million years as a kid. Bravo to those who can read it without becoming a total wreck. And the ending is 1000% worth it. It is a GREAT book. But oh the journey for these characters!!!!! show less

Bob, the scrappy mutt last seen in The One And Only Ivan, is now a pet - though he dislikes the word - in George, Sara, and Julia's house. While he admits that regular meals and being scratched behind the ears are pretty great, he still thinks of himself as an independent, street-savvy dog. And he still gets to visit his old friends, Ivan the gorilla and Ruby the elephant, at the zoo where George works. But trouble is in the air - literally. A storm is brewing: a tornado at the edge of Hurricane Gus hits the zoo, and then there's flooding - including at the animal shelter, where Bob thinks he heard his long-lost-and-presumed-dead older sister, Boss. Bob takes off on a rescue mission, during which he learns about cowardice, bravery, and show more the importance of forgiving others - and yourself.

With Bob's past, it's understandable that he would have trust issues, and complicated feelings about humans. He points out, reasonably, that while dogs are known as "man's best friend," humans are not referred to as "dog's best friend." Yet Bob is fair enough not to paint all humans with the same brush: some are bad, but some are good. In a touching ending, he even brings his sister around to see his point of view.

Quotes

I knew that cars meant humans, and humans meant the possibility of living, just as much as they meant the possibility of dying. (22)

When you forgive, you lose your anger, and when you lose your anger, you get weak. And when you're weak, you can get hurt all over again. (82)

When you've been through the worst with someone, you appreciate the best. (116)

I was afraid. A coward.
There's a certain freedom that comes with owning your faults. (234)

"I just...I can't seem to forgive myself."
"I forgive you. Okay? Not that you need it...One condition, though. You have to forgive yourself too." (267)

But sometimes humans don't let you down. Sometimes they even come to the rescue. (323) show less

The One and Only Bob is a middle-grade children’s book and the second in Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only series. In this one, we have Bob, Ivan’s little dog friend and closest companion from The One and Only Ivan. At the end of the first book, when Mack’s circus was shut down and all the animals were rehomed, Bob went to live with Julia and her parents. There he has a nice cushy life with lots of love and cuddles, but the other animals in the neighborhood have started to tease Bob about becoming soft. For a former street dog who prides himself on being tough, that’s a hard pill to swallow. Still, his new life sure beats the old one where he had to scrounge for food just to survive and frequently run to stay out of show more Mack’s clutches and remain independent. Every once in a while, Bob also thinks of how he came to be at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, and he misses the sister he thinks may still be out there somewhere. Since Julia’s dad works for the wild animal park where Ivan and Ruby now live, Julia is able to regularly bring Bob to visit his friends. One day, while they’re at the park, a tornado spawned by an oncoming hurricane hits, putting both animal and human lives in danger. In the aftermath, Bob waits anxiously for news of Ivan. Then he hears a bark over a police radio that he’s all but certain is his long-lost sister, so he goes to the animal shelter to investigate. But the next thing he knows, the shelter is flooding with seemingly no way out, and the full force of the hurricane arrives, once again endangering both Bob and all the other shelter animals.

Bob is a little fluffy chihuahua mix who got a really tough start to life when humans tossed him and his puppy siblings out the window of a truck. He survived but most of the others didn’t, except for one sister who he heard barking in the aftermath, but he wasn’t able to find her. Cold and starving, Bob eventually made his way to the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, where he found food, shelter, and a friend in Ivan. For the most part Bob stayed close to the mall, but he would frequently make treks out into the wider world in search of his sister, Boss, to no avail. When the mall was shut down by animal rights activists, Bob went to live with Julia, the little girl who often came to visit while her dad was caring for the animals at the mall. Bob is torn between liking his new life and family and still wanting to project the aura of the independent, streetwise dog he used to be. He doesn’t think he’s brave and usually just looks out for himself, but when the hurricane hits, he instinctively starts searching for those he loves: Julia, her dad, George, and mom, Sara, Ivan, and Ruby. After hearing the bark that he thinks is his sister, he goes in search of Boss, too, even risking his life to find and save those close to him. Bob is kind of a no-nonsense pragmatist, who knows first-hand what humans can be like so he doesn’t trust just anyone. He does, however, love Julia and her parents. He has a very distinctive voice that shines through, a mixture of toughness and tenderness, depending on the situation. He acts like he doesn’t care much, but proves otherwise when his friends are in danger. He also doesn’t think that he’s brave, but he exhibits that quality when he has to even if he doesn’t realize it. Bob is a very memorable dog character and I’m so glad the author gave him his own story.

I enjoyed The One and Only Bob every bit as much as the first book of the series. Katherine Applegate really has a knack for getting inside the minds of animals and bringing them to life in a way that makes me love them. She has a spare writing style that somehow manages to convey a lot in very few words. She also writes with a great deal of sensitivity and compassion for both her animal and human characters. I love how she explored the concepts of family and bravery. Bob lost his dog family, then found a new family with Ivan and Ruby, and later yet another one with Julia and her parents. He also gets the opportunity to rediscover his long-lost sister, so family takes on many forms in this book. Also Bob repeatedly says how he’s learned to only look out for himself and that he isn’t brave at all, but time after time, he shows that he has more fortitude than he thinks. Sometimes bravery is just being there for a friend during a crisis or simply doing the right thing. Through these themes, I felt the story had a positive message for the middle-schoolers at which it’s aimed, and I also felt it was fully appropriate for the age group. It does contain some difficult topics like animal abuse, loss and grief, but IMHO, they’re handled in an age-appropriate way. There’s also some suspense caused by the hurricane putting lives in danger, but nothing too graphic or intense that older kids couldn’t handle. Overall, The One and Only Bob was another heartwarming story from the fertile mind of Katherine Applegate that has made it onto my keeper shelf and earned her a spot as a new favorite author. I can’t wait to continue the series. show less

This is adorable. Very much a kids book, but manages to be fast paced and complex. The narrative voice and the unusually short chapters make for a very full on experience, helped along by the plot, the weather, and a sequence of difficult situations that require Bob to be more than they think they can be.

I haven't read The One and Only Ivan, but one does not have to have done so to appreciate this sequel -- there are numerous references to previous events, but they are placed in sufficient context for this not to matter.

For a reasonably fast adult reader this is ~1 hour read; I'd expect that a competent middle grade reader would be quite comfortable with the level of the story.

Thank you Edelweiss Plus for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this one, more than The One and Only Ivan. One of the greatest things about The One and Only Bob is Bob's voice. He's a tough nut, sarcastic but sentimental. He tells it like it is and his description of dog-life is sweet and funny. The plot involves much more action than The One and Only Ivan and also involves more physical peril for the characters. I could see how some kids would find this distressing, but much of the peril comes in mini-episodes and resolves quickly. The ending made me teary even though I knew it was coming. Delightful, fun book that will be a classic.

There's some recycling of other Applegate books in this sequel to The One and Only Ivan. The novel is told in an almost verse-like structure, sometimes with just a few short sentences on a titled page, as with Applegate's Home of the Brave. Bob, the narrator and central character, is very reminiscent of Endling in her Endling trilogy. As with Endling's bare repetition of common fantasy quest tropes, I found Bob's faux bravado and cynicism, and his frequent acts of altruism covered with "what kind of idiot am I for doing this", annoyingly cliched. But the story is saved at the halfway point when a hurricane literally tears everything apart. Though the events are seteups for a potential movie, this is when Applegate's skill at mixing show more action with emotions and deeper themes -- in this case human-animal relationships -- comes to the fore. Sharp edges to characters appear that were missing in the first half, both with someone very important to Bob, and Kimu, a captive wolf. Kimu appears briefly in only a few scenes but very effectively so. show less