Book Review: Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

Name: Half Brother
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Released: 2010
Reviewed by: Prince

Half Brother, one of the  typical works of Kenneth Oppel filled with love, emotion and thrill. I would recommended this book to be one of the best novels for young adults,

The story revolves around two persons Ben Tomlin and Zan (A Smart Chimp). This fast moving novel kicks off from the beginning when on 13th birthday of Ben Tomlin's, his parents bring home a baby chimpanzee to be raised as human and teach it with American Sign Language(Project Zan). This project is to make the world realize the fact that chimp's can learn and speak languages like humans.

Initially Ben doesn't care about Zan and feels jealous that some stranger had stolen his place and love at home. But then as time goes by, love between Ben and Zan grew so rapidly that Ben feels Zan to be his half brother. Ben would do anything for Zan and Zan becomes more close to Ben than anyone in their family.

The authors captures their love in such a way that anyone reading this novel will love to have a brother like Zan. After few of pages of true brotherhood, now the thriller begins when Ben's father enlists a team of student researchers to teach Zan for their project. Ben begs his father to include him in the list but in vain. His father rejects him saying he is still a kid and should be focussed in getting good marks and completing his school. His father is a hard-minded scientist and hates anything very sentimental (Ben's affection on Zan).

Unlike Ben's father, his mother is lovable and cares more for Zan like her own child. As the training gets underway, Ben begins to feel that Zan is not treated as a human but as an animal tortured to learn sign languages. Ben begins to hate each and everyone who comes in between him and Zan. He wanted to save Zan from this torture

To Ben's relief, there comes a student researcher(Peter) who loves zan like him. Slowly Ben and Peter teach zan sign languages in a human way. As time goes by, their comes a day when project zan has to be completed and result to be shown to the world.

Real thriller starts here and suddenly Zan finds himself out of the Tomlin home and into a research facility in Nevada. Will Ben get back his brother Zan from the research facility where animals are treated badly.... Read rest of the story and enjoy the book.

Half Brother is fast-moving, smart and emotionally told. I personally felt really emotional on reading this wonderful book. Very heart touching and emotional drama. I would give a rating of 4.8/5 for this wonderful book