A review by emmkayt
Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

4.0

Based on a pair of real experiments with primates in the 1970s, this is set in 1970s Victoria. The thirteen year old protagonist's world is turned upside down when his family re-locates to the West Coast so his parents can run an experiment involving raising a baby chimpanzee as a member of the family - sort of - in hopes that they can teach him sign language. Very readable and absorbing, and thoughtfully raises some very serious animal rights issues. I did find the writing a little flat, in that there were no turns of phrase or manners of expressing something that really made me take notice, but it was overall very good. My ten year old read it first and loved it! (but it does involve the 13 year old lead going to a beach party with drinking, and 'making out' with girls - probably it is aimed at kids a bit older ...)