Book Review: Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

Half Brother
Kenneth Oppel
Scholastic Press, September 2010
ISBN 0545229251
Hardcover (ARC)

Ben Tomlin, an only child, turns 13 years old when his parents move from Toronto to Victoria, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Dr. Richard Tomlin, Ben’s dad, is a behavioral psychologist and mother, Sarah, is working on her PhD. thesis.  Ben and his dad traveled by car the six days to their new home while Sarah arrives from an Air Force base in New Mexico to meet them. Sarah enters the new house carrying a blanketed bundle which turns out to be a baby chimpanzee.

As a behavioral psychologist, Richard studied how people as well as animals behaved.  He taught at a university and studied and published articles relative to rats.  Knowing how smart chimps are and becoming bored with studying rats, he wanted to see if chimps could learn American Sign Language. The university didn’t seem too interested in this project but Richard received a job offer from a university in Victoria where they not only promoted him to full professor but also provided a baby chimpanzee for his study.

The first order of business was to name the new “baby”.  After a number of suggestions, Ben proposed Tarzan but they finally agreed on Zan.  Zan sleeps in a bassinet, is fed from a bottle, wears shirts and diapers and is carried around by Sarah.  Zan is being treated as a human and Ben is encouraged to think of Zan as his “brother”.

With Richard at work teaching all day, Ben in school and Sarah busy working on her thesis, it was decided to hire research students who would be with Zan when the family could not commit the time to the project.  Zan had his own suite in the house where the students would be playing with him while teaching him sign language. Since this was a research project, the students maintained a logbook describing Zan’s behavior and progress.

While Zan is growing and learning, Ben is dealing with common teenage issues such as acceptance by the other kids and most importantly by Jennifer Godwin, daughter of Dr. Godwin, chair of the psychology department and the person who hired Richard and made Project Zan happen. Ben and Jennifer are the same age and in the same school, however, only in two classes together. The lovesick Ben initiates a Project Jennifer logbook. In his previous school, Ben was a class nerd but in this new city and new school, there would also be a new Ben. No spending time with “low ranking” kids. No, Ben knew what he wanted and that was to be a dominant male. He wouldn’t be submitting to anyone; everyone would submit to him.

When Greg Jaworski, a preeminent linguist, determines that Zan is not really learning language, only imitating his human caregivers, Richard realizes that the funding for Project Zan will not be continued without Greg’s support. In addition, other errors in the experiment have been identified, such as not using double-blind tests.  Based on these findings, Richard accepts that in order to maintain his reputation as a scientist, he needs to quietly close the experiment and publish his findings, such as they are.

So what does one do with a chimp who has been raised as a human but is indeed, an animal, a different species and one growing stronger every day?  I’ll never tell but I will say that despite his initial misgivings, Ben becomes very attached to Zan.

I can easily see the appeal this book would have on the targeted 12 – 18 age group.  Ben is constantly at odds with his father and the angst of a new school, new friends, a love interest and the strange family life would hold the attention of any teen, male or female. Adult readers will also enjoy this book. It is addicting – the pages just fly by! I’m always newly amazed by the imagination and creativity of some writers and Kenneth Oppel definitely fits into that category!

Reviewed by Jean Tribull Harris, October 2010.

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October 10, 2010  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: Full Reviews

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