For thirteen years, Ben Tomlin was an only child. But all that changes
when his mother brings home Zan -- an eight-day-old chimpanzee. Ben's
father, a renowned behavioral scientist, has uprooted the family to
pursue his latest research project: a high-profile experiment to
determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills.
Ben's parents tell him to treat Zan like a little brother. Ben
reluctantly agrees. At least now he's not the only one his father's
going to scrutinize.
It isn't long before Ben is Zan's favorite, and Ben starts to see Zan as
more than just an experiment. His father disagrees. Soon Ben is forced
to make a critical choice between what he is told to believe and what he
knows to be true -- between obeying his father or protecting his brother
from an unimaginable fate.
Half Brother isn't just a story about a boy and a chimp. It's about
the way families are made, the way humanity is judged, the way easy
choices become hard ones, and how you can't always do right by the
people and animals you love. In the hands of master storyteller Kenneth
Oppel, it's a novel you won't soon forget.