Changes

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Ben's is thirteen and an only child. You'd think he was entirely used to being the centre of attention, then, wouldn't you? But this isn't really the case. Ben's parents are academics. His father is a fiercely ambitious behavioural psychologist and his mother is both completing her doctorate and acting as her husband's research assistant. Ben is used to coming second to the advance of science. He can cope with that. Usually. But then his parents up sticks and move him all the way across Canada. Why? Because his father's new university is prepared to underwrite his new project - raising a chimpanzee as human and trying to teach it American Sign Language.

So, Ben has not only left school and friends behind, he's being asked to accept a new baby "brother", and a new house that's going to be more of a laboratory than a home. You can't really blame him for feeling resentful, can you? But the chimp, Zan, chisels his way into Ben's affections. His infectious personality and ability to form genuine attachments soon turn him into a real member of the family, as so far as Ben is concerned, at least.

''Half Brother'' is set in the 1970s and based on real research. Nim Chimpsky - you might not like the idea of such experiments, but you have to admit that's a funny pun - was raised in a human household, taught ASL, and eventually pronounced as having failed to learn language, just like Zan. I wouldn't consider myself as a militant about animal rights, or even as particularly sentimental about animals, but I found this book incredibly difficult to read. Oppel makes it clear from the outset that the experiment isn't going to end well and I felt an ever-increasing sense of dread and pity as I read. Heartbreakingly, the flaws are clear to Ben - the not-particularly-academic, hormonal teenager - but not to his brilliant parents. Ben can see the contradictions and the cruelty as Zan is treated as a human one moment and an animal the next. His father sees only a test subject. His mother probably sees more, but indulges in handwringing self-justifications instead of facing up to things. They both spend most of the book utterly failing as parents, both for boy and chimp.

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