Ben Tomlin was an only child for thirteen years.Then his parents brought home a baby chimp.
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 human language. 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 favourite, 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.
I just read about this one in Quill and Quire and am eager to get my hands on a copy.
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