Author (last name first):
Oppel, Kenneth
Publisher, Date of Publication:
Scholastic Press/2010
Grade Level/ or Age Level:
6th and Up
Classification: Fiction Ben's father is a scientist at a university in Canada doing research on sign language between chimpanzees and humans. His family obtains a chimp (Zan) at birth who is treated like a member of the family. Ben and his mother take on the role of his family at home, but to the father Zan is merely a means of collecting data to prove his theory and he never tries t bond with the chimp. His father doesn't know the monkey very well, and he makes errors in judgment. Eventually the experiment is scrapped, and Zan has to be sold. The man who buys Zan .someone of high prestige, promises not to sell Zan to a medical lab but later reneges on his promise. Ben and his mother steal Zan back and they offer to buy him to take him to a sanctuary in Florida. The man agrees, but changes his mind when news gets out that he was considering selling him to a medical lab. Now he wants to sue for defamation of his character. Somehow t.v. news stations received letters proving he was willing to sell Zan to medical labs so he was willing to sell the chimp to Ben's family for $1.00. So many important issues are alluded to in this story.
Reviewed By: Sue Lane (Retired Teacher, City View Jr. Sr. High)
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