Half Brother
Written by Kenneth Oppel
HarperCollins Canada
Recommended for ages 12-15
$19.99

Ben Tomlin, an only child, and his parents have just moved from Toronto to Victoria, BC.  As with many families, the reason for the move is work.  In this case, Ben’s parents are scientists and his Dad is beginning a high-profile scientific study whereby he is claiming that chimpanzees can learn language by way of American Sign Language (ASL).   
 
The family immediately welcomes Zan (short for Tarzan) to their home.  Instead of treating Zan as an animal, the Tomlins and their team of university student helpers treat him as they would a new baby. Zan wears diapers, drinks from a bottle, sits in a highchair and sleeps in a crib.  As time passes, treating this chimpanzee as a human becomes more and more difficult.  At times, his behaviour becomes out-of-control as he tears cupboard doors off and races around his suite in a complete tirade.  At one point, Zan even bites one of the students causing Ben’s father to reprimand him severely.  This upsets Ben to think that he would treat his half brother in this way.
 
Ben and his father have a strained relationship.  Ben sees his father as a cold-hearted scientist who is only concerned with his experiment while Ben’s father sees his son as a lazy teenager who is not reaching his potential in school.  
 
This fast-paced story is based on two real-life experiments that took place in the 1970s. Since this story is also set in that timeframe, there are aspects of it that teenagers may find strange yet the underlying story is timeless.  Readers will be interested to find out for themselves, can chimpanzees acquire and use language in a meaningful manner?
 
Canadian author Kenneth Oppel is also the author of many popular books for teenagers including the Silverwing and Airborn series.