A review by kricketa
Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

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.