Book Review: Kenneth Oppel's "Half Brother"

Imagine Ben’s surprise when he finds out that his new baby brother is actually a chimpanzee. Ben’s parents are both scientists who have decided to try an experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can learn language. The language that Zan, the chimpanzee, will be learning is sign language. In order to conduct the experiment, it requires having Zan live like a human being. Ben is leery at first about having a new family member but soon warms to the idea. Problems begin when funding is lost and Zan must be sent somewhere else to live. Ben must find a way to keep his little brother safe.


My thoughts:

To be honest, when I was reading the book reviews and saw the book itself, I was not sold on the idea. I thought the book would not be interesting at all even though I loved all of Kenneth Oppels previous books. To my great surprise I loved the book. I loved the character development of Ben and Zan. Oppel has a way of creating relationships and we can definitely see the different relationships that are formed here. My heart went out to Zan throughout most of this book (the thought of experimenting on an animal for the sake of science) but it was heartwarming to read the way Ben and Zan interacted.

My rating: 4.5 stars


Update: I went home yesterday to find that the Gazette did a whole story on chimpanzee sanctuaries. Kenneth Oppel was featured in the article. Here is the link to the article: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Rejected+chimps+find+shelter+Chambly/3656247

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