By Amy Maginnis-Honey

At an age when many children are hoping for a cellphone, Lory Carranza’s fourth-grade class at Dan O. Root Elementary School is collecting old ones.

The idea came from the fictional story, “The One and Only Ivan,” which was inspired by a gorilla that spent 27 years in a mall with a circus theme in Tacoma, Washington before finding a home at the Atlanta Zoo. Ivan died in 2012 at the age of 50.

The 2011 book focuses on Ivan, who never knew life in the jungle and spent time watching westerns and romantic shows on a television. He thinks about his friends, an elderly elephant, a stray dog and a new baby elephant.

Source: Dan O. Root class goes ape for gorilla story, set on helping the primate