This is the end

At Spruce Avenue we all felt as though the novel that we enjoyed the most and would take into our classrooms to teach was The One and Only Ivan. For us, the Smackdown seemed as though it was a two horse race: Ivan vs. Counting by 7's. 

We enjoyed Bomb and knew that many students would enjoy its story but overall it lacked that special quality that make us love a novel. 

Counting by 7's was a novel that, against a different opponent, could have won the Smackdown but just wasn't good enough to beat the gorilla. 

In my limited years with the Smackdown I think back to the winners of the past: A Monster Calls and The Fault in our Stars (I'm giddy like a teenage girl waiting in line to catch a passing glimpse of Justin Bieber or One Direction to see TFioS in theatres). In my two years, I think Ivan is the most teachable novel in the Smackdown as well and while Ivan is entirely different from both of those two novels, it can, in my opinion, stand beside either one and be equal in greatness.