The One and Only Ivan

Author: Kathleen Applegate
Lexile measure: unknown, probably about 900
Bottom line:    A Light in August, but narrated by a gorilla.
Language: refers to words used when mad, also "stupid".
Violence:  An elephant dies of neglect, another elephant is hit with a hook by a human.  The animals tell their stories of being caught in the wild.  Some family members were killed and dismembered.
Big Kid Mature Topics: This book is about some animals in a circus.  The animals are somewhat neglected.   The narrator talks about humans as if they are the same as other animal species (some people may find this offensive).   Talks about "face licking" in romance movies.  Talks about Mack getting drunk.  One of the characters has a mother who is very sick.  Poverty.
Illustrations:  infrequent black and white shaded drawings.
Plot: moderately complex.

DD (age 5) really loved this book.  However, I would never read this to a sensitive younger child.  It is too sad and there is a lot of violence towards animals.  Some of the mature topics would easily go over a young child's head.  The gorilla narrator really doesn't seem to understand those aspects of human life very well, so a child would not probably see through the narration.  Still, there are a lot of other animal stories out there.  I would save this one for at least age 5 or 6, possibly later.