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Monday, April 1, 2013

Half Brother is my Favorite Thing


When I wrote the last post I did not expect that there would be two posts back-to-back that had to do with apes or monkeys, but I just finished reading this book and it was amazing.

This book takes place in 1970s Canada. It is about a 13 year-old boy named Ben Tomlin who must cope with his family bringing home a new baby. The difference is that this baby is not human, but a chimpanzee. Ben's father works for a university and they are trying to see if chimps can learn sign language and communicate with people. Ben must learn to cope with the issues of having a new family member that they are told to treat like a human and not like a chimp. 

At first Ben does not like the fact that they have this new family member, but eventually he starts to feel like Zan (the chimpanzee) is his little brother. Along with the issues of dealing with Zan at home he must also deal with other problems of being a teenaged boy such as girls, classes, and who his real friends are. 

The reason that I really enjoyed this book is that it got me to be emotionally attached to the characters, especially Zan. When the father is thinking of getting rid of him, I felt sorry for Ben and Zan and did not want to see the two brothers ripped apart. This is a book that I could not put down. It is around 340 pages, but they go by really quickly. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science or just want to read a great coming-of-age story about a boy who must learn that the world does not revolve around him. This book has romance, comedy, and emotional scenes so everyone will enjoy it. If you want to read it, go check it out at your public library or buy it online. You can get it for around $5 on Amazon and I would definitely recommend it. I bought it at my school's book fair for $3 because it was on sale and I definitely do not regret it. 

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