Half Brother Sparknotes

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Half Brother is a story about a boy named Ben Tomlin, and a chimpanzee named Zan. Ben’s parents are scientists and they want to figure out if they will be able to teach a chimp American Sign Language. Since we humans have evolved from, Ben’s parents believe Chimpanzees are almost as smart as we are. Half Brother is an award-winning book and is a good read for grades 6-12. Kenneth Oppel, the author, has also won many awards for the other books he has written. He has written 19 books in all!

When Ben Tomlin’s mom brings home an eight-day old chimpanzee and declares him as Ben’s new brother, Ben is far from thrilled. They decide to name the chimp, Zan. His father, a behavioral scientist has moved the entire family to Victoria, B.C. when neither Ben’s mom nor Ben himself wanted to. Ben is far away from his friends and has to start a new life at a new school. Ben’s father moved them to do a high-profile experiment-to determine whether chimps can learn American Sign Language. Zan must be raised exactly like a human. He has his own room with toys and books. Overtime, Zan becomes a top media topic while Ben becomes a researcher and starts liking Zan more and more. But when Project Zan unexpectedly loses its funding, Ben’s dad is under extreme pressure to make the experiement succeed or abandon it—and Zan. …show more content…

I didn’t think I would like this book just because of the title, but soon I learned that you can’t judge a book by its looks. The language in the book excellent and the story plot was amazing. My favorite character in the book was Zan. Even though he wasn’t a human a couldn’t talk and explain his emotions, the way he acted and the way his character was described was very cool. The idea to write a book about a chimpanzee that was going to be taught American Sign Language was very unique and it was a bright

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