Half Brother

It is 1973, and thirteen-year-old Ben Tomlin's life is upended when his family moves from Toronto to Victoria, British Columbia, for his father's new research project. The project: raise a baby chimpanzee named Zan as a human child to see if he can learn sign language. Ben's parents insist he treat Zan as a little brother—feeding him, playing with him, even sharing his bedroom. At first, Ben resists. He didn't ask for a hairy, diaper-wearing sibling who screams at three in the morning.

But as weeks pass, something shifts. Zan learns his first sign ("hug"), then more, then dozens. He recognizes Ben's face, reaches for his hand, laughs when they play. Ben falls deeply in love with his little brother—and that is when the trouble begins. When the university threatens to cut funding, Ben's father faces a choice: produce results or lose the project. The methods become harsher. The question of whether Zan is a research subject or a family member becomes impossible to ignore. And when the project's future comes down to a final, devastating decision, Ben must choose between obeying his father and saving the brother he was never supposed to love.

Kenneth Oppel, inspired by real chimpanzee language experiments of the 1970s (Project Nim, Project Washoe), delivers a novel that is simultaneously a coming-of-age story, a family drama, and a fierce examination of animal rights. Half Brother will make you laugh, cry, and question every assumption you have about what separates humans from animals.

Available at Popular bookstores, Kinokuniya, and the Singapore National Library.