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kricketa's review against another edition
3.0
ben is already having difficulty absorbing his family's move from toronto to victoria, and now his parents have brought a baby chimpanzee to live in their home. ben's scientist father wants to raise zan as a human and see if he can acquire language skills. at first, ben is not a fan, but eventually he does come to think of zan as his little brother, just as his father initially wanted. but zan is a subject, not a family member, and the study is at the mercy of professors, funding, and ben's father.
after reading (and loving) oppel's airborn trilogy, i was surprised by this switch to realistic fiction. maybe it was the setting in the 1970s, but i found ben rather naive and just felt so bad for him all the time. i'm not really sure what was going on with his romantic life- it was terribly awkward with the "project jennifer" notebook and i cringed every time ben mentioned breasts. (again...maybe the 70s setting?)
still, i did enjoy reading this. and i don't even like monkeys.
after reading (and loving) oppel's airborn trilogy, i was surprised by this switch to realistic fiction. maybe it was the setting in the 1970s, but i found ben rather naive and just felt so bad for him all the time. i'm not really sure what was going on with his romantic life- it was terribly awkward with the "project jennifer" notebook and i cringed every time ben mentioned breasts. (again...maybe the 70s setting?)
still, i did enjoy reading this. and i don't even like monkeys.
chadstep's review against another edition
5.0
Yeah--five stars, that's right. I was not only impressed with the overall confidence if the story but I also appreciated the little things--a peek into the mentality of 70's academia, parenting, and the burgeoning animal rights movement. Plus, the sincerity and tightness of the writing--each chapter tells exactly what needs told and no more so the pacing is excellent. Nice job, Oppell!
mrspenningalovesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Great read recommended by one of my students. You will love getting to know Zan, the chimpanzee and his big brother, the protagonist,
carrionlibrarian's review
3.0
I have to admit I was a little hesitant to pick up Half Brother; monkeys scare the bejeezus out of me. However, I had heard nothing but good things about this book and was feeling really out of the loop. In the end I’m really glad I read it (even though some of the depictions of the violence wild chimps are capable of made my stomach turn).
Half Brother is an impressive novel in how it explores the idea of animal testing and cruelty in a way that young adults can understand and identify with without being didactic or offering any easy answers.
However, Half Brother is more than an issue novel. It has two subplots that made the book even more nuanced: Ben’s relationship with both his crush and his father.
Ben’s first teenage crush is handled with great finesse. Oppel manages to be neither too soppy or too raunchy in his depiction of Ben’s feelings for Jennifer: Ben’s intentions are earnest, but not entirely pure. He wants to make Jennifer happy and for her to like him, but he’s not above ogling her in her swim suit or angling for necking.
Ben’s complicated relationship with his father is also a wonder part of this book. The emotional and average Ben and his scholarly and aloof father rarely see eye-to-eye, whether it be about Ben’s grades, friends, or belief that Zan is more than a test subject. The way in which Ben chooses to see his relationship with his father through the lens of alpha male hierarchy of chimps gives unique perspective to this well tread trope.
Overall, an excellent novel for both boys and girls.
Half Brother is an impressive novel in how it explores the idea of animal testing and cruelty in a way that young adults can understand and identify with without being didactic or offering any easy answers.
However, Half Brother is more than an issue novel. It has two subplots that made the book even more nuanced: Ben’s relationship with both his crush and his father.
Ben’s first teenage crush is handled with great finesse. Oppel manages to be neither too soppy or too raunchy in his depiction of Ben’s feelings for Jennifer: Ben’s intentions are earnest, but not entirely pure. He wants to make Jennifer happy and for her to like him, but he’s not above ogling her in her swim suit or angling for necking.
Ben’s complicated relationship with his father is also a wonder part of this book. The emotional and average Ben and his scholarly and aloof father rarely see eye-to-eye, whether it be about Ben’s grades, friends, or belief that Zan is more than a test subject. The way in which Ben chooses to see his relationship with his father through the lens of alpha male hierarchy of chimps gives unique perspective to this well tread trope.
Overall, an excellent novel for both boys and girls.
leenah_lena's review against another edition
5.0
I felt grubby reading parts of this book because I was sucked into a teenage boy mind and it often felt like a grubby place. I did not enjoy the parts of Ben's story where he tried to be an alpha male and attempted to study and court his crush, but they felt authentic and (too) well done. The story as it related to Zan (the chimpanzee) and his relationships with other people was phenomenal. I was completely engaged and so emotionally involved.
lian_tanner's review against another edition
5.0
A deeply moving book about science, families, chimps and adolescent boys. The character of Zan, the chimpanzee, is built with loving care, as is the rather difficult family that he is brought into.
librariann's review against another edition
4.0
Ages 11+ (ethical dilemmas, dating issues)
Set in the 1970's, the animal rights issues transfer seamlessly to today. (And thanks to Mamma Mia the musical, preteens will also probably recognize the music as well)
Set in the 1970's, the animal rights issues transfer seamlessly to today. (And thanks to Mamma Mia the musical, preteens will also probably recognize the music as well)
karen_k77's review against another edition
4.0
I love Kenneth Oppel's books. I love his writing style, his characterization, his humor. And I love the idea of this book. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that it just didn't WOW me, although I was suitably impressed.
So Ben's parents surprise him one day by announcing that they'll be taking on a project involving a baby chimp. They'll be teaching the chimp, named Zan, sign language, in order to grasp how well animals can understand and apply language. Ben is annoyed and jealous at first, but his and Zan's relationship soon grows just as unbreakable and heart-warming as the relationship between two biological brothers. Ben is just as protective of Zan as many normal older brothers are of their younger siblings. It's adorable.
I liked Ben well enough. I really liked him, actually. He wasn't physically described, so I kept switching between mental images, but that's not really important. Personality-wise, he was characterized as a normal teenager; he wants to fit in, have friends, date girls. He has some anger issues, but everyone does, I guess. I got creeped out over his obsession with Jennifer, and his often random comments about breasts and feeling aroused and whatnot. But he's a teenage boy, and I'm not, so there's obviously going to be some differences in the way we think. I don't hold it against him.
I didn't really understand what the main conflict was, but my theory is that there really isn't one. It's just the life of a boy with his chimp half-brother. There wasn't a set villain, although Jack Helson came pretty close.
I loved Zan, honestly. He just sounded so adorable. Understandably, he wasn't characterized much beyond being a chimp, but that was sort of the point of the book, right? You can take a chimp out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the chimp? He wasn't supposed to have an exceedingly human-like personality. He had personality, don't get me wrong, and he had control of a small vocabulary, so it was interesting to see the similarities he had with his half-brother. And there were a lot of similarities. But he also had that certain aspect to him that could never be erased; he's a wild animal. So it was great to see what kind of balance Oppel would create between Zan's human upbringing and his genetic nature. That's the intellectually stimulating part of this novel.
That being said, I like the cover because it looks like the men and women they put on bathroom signs.
The plot, while it was fun and humorous and kind of weird sometimes, isn't really the kind of plot I can go over in detail without taking an hour to write this all down. Family gets chimp. Boy, at first, is jealous. Boy ends up loving chimp like brother. Then chimp has to go away. But chimp is almost sent to a medical lab where nasty scientists will do sadistic experiments on him. That's about the best I can do. It was a good story.
I recommend everyone read this book. It isn't SUPER FANTASTIC AMAZING, but it is pretty good. I haven't read a Kenneth Oppel book I didn't like, so I also recommend you check out more of his books. They're all awesome. The Silverwing series and the Airborn series in particular. From one reader to another. Read those books. And this one.
So Ben's parents surprise him one day by announcing that they'll be taking on a project involving a baby chimp. They'll be teaching the chimp, named Zan, sign language, in order to grasp how well animals can understand and apply language. Ben is annoyed and jealous at first, but his and Zan's relationship soon grows just as unbreakable and heart-warming as the relationship between two biological brothers. Ben is just as protective of Zan as many normal older brothers are of their younger siblings. It's adorable.
I liked Ben well enough. I really liked him, actually. He wasn't physically described, so I kept switching between mental images, but that's not really important. Personality-wise, he was characterized as a normal teenager; he wants to fit in, have friends, date girls. He has some anger issues, but everyone does, I guess. I got creeped out over his obsession with Jennifer, and his often random comments about breasts and feeling aroused and whatnot. But he's a teenage boy, and I'm not, so there's obviously going to be some differences in the way we think. I don't hold it against him.
I didn't really understand what the main conflict was, but my theory is that there really isn't one. It's just the life of a boy with his chimp half-brother. There wasn't a set villain, although Jack Helson came pretty close.
I loved Zan, honestly. He just sounded so adorable. Understandably, he wasn't characterized much beyond being a chimp, but that was sort of the point of the book, right? You can take a chimp out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the chimp? He wasn't supposed to have an exceedingly human-like personality. He had personality, don't get me wrong, and he had control of a small vocabulary, so it was interesting to see the similarities he had with his half-brother. And there were a lot of similarities. But he also had that certain aspect to him that could never be erased; he's a wild animal. So it was great to see what kind of balance Oppel would create between Zan's human upbringing and his genetic nature. That's the intellectually stimulating part of this novel.
That being said, I like the cover because it looks like the men and women they put on bathroom signs.
The plot, while it was fun and humorous and kind of weird sometimes, isn't really the kind of plot I can go over in detail without taking an hour to write this all down. Family gets chimp. Boy, at first, is jealous. Boy ends up loving chimp like brother. Then chimp has to go away. But chimp is almost sent to a medical lab where nasty scientists will do sadistic experiments on him.
Spoiler
Boy saves chimp. Chimp still has to go away, albeit to a safer place, a sanctuary. End.I recommend everyone read this book. It isn't SUPER FANTASTIC AMAZING, but it is pretty good. I haven't read a Kenneth Oppel book I didn't like, so I also recommend you check out more of his books. They're all awesome. The Silverwing series and the Airborn series in particular. From one reader to another. Read those books. And this one.
m3l89's review against another edition
4.0
Set in Canada, Half Brother is the story of Zan a chimpanzee raised by Ben and his family as part of an experiment.
This was very interesting from a Psychology point of view, as I studied Psychology at university and understood many of the concepts discussed and scientific language used.
It wasn’t until 40 pages in that you discover the book is set in 1973, and personally I felt this could have been made more obvious in the description without it needing to be pointed out so bluntly.
I did find myself thinking about the newest Planet of the Apes film quite a lot, which I found a little off putting. But overall Half Brother contained a good mix of the normal growing up of a teenage boy, discovering girls and starting a new school with the more unusual element of raising a chimp as a human.
This was very interesting from a Psychology point of view, as I studied Psychology at university and understood many of the concepts discussed and scientific language used.
It wasn’t until 40 pages in that you discover the book is set in 1973, and personally I felt this could have been made more obvious in the description without it needing to be pointed out so bluntly.
I did find myself thinking about the newest Planet of the Apes film quite a lot, which I found a little off putting. But overall Half Brother contained a good mix of the normal growing up of a teenage boy, discovering girls and starting a new school with the more unusual element of raising a chimp as a human.